Verstappen reveals struggles with blurred vision after 2021 crash
Red Bull Racing/Red Bull Content Pool
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Max Verstappen has confirmed that he experienced episodes of blurred vision during several races following his notorious crash at the 2021 British Grand Prix, shedding light on a previously undisclosed challenge during his championship battle with Lewis Hamilton.
During the race at Silverstone, Verstappen collided with title rival Hamilton at high speed, hitting the wall at 180mph. The impact, recorded at 51 G-forces, necessitated a visit to the hospital for precautionary checks.
In a recent article published in the Red Bulletin, Verstappen revealed that the effects of the crash lingered, notably affecting his vision in subsequent races. The revelation came while he was listing his top 10 performances, specifically citing the 2021 U.S. Grand Prix:
"Since my Silverstone crash, I've struggled with visibility problems, especially on undulating circuits or those with lots of advertising boards on the side of the track. In this race, I wasn't just fighting against Lewis, but also against blurred images. It was like driving a speedboat at 300kph. I've never said this before, but it was so bad for a few laps that I seriously considered turning the car off. The only thing that helped was to concentrate on my breathing with Lewis breathing down my neck. An important win that I desperately needed in the championship fight."
Following extensive circulation on social media, the quote was subsequently retracted, with Red Bull claiming it had been poorly translated into English. This marked the first public acknowledgment from Verstappen regarding this issue.
During the media day for the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix, Verstappen, now a three-time world champion, confirmed the accuracy of the quote but reassured that the problem no longer affects him.
"It was just in '21. After that it went away. It did occur, back then," Verstappen said on Thursday at the Hungaroring.
When asked whether the Silverstone incident was the cause, Verstappen responded: "It didn't happen before, let's say it like that."
Despite the severity of the situation, Verstappen downplayed its overall impact: "It's not something I would advise for people to have while driving. We are racing drivers. You deal with all sorts of stuff. Always here and there people have like little injuries or whatever. Those things happen."
Verstappen confirmed he sought treatment with a specialist to address the vision problems but chose not to disclose further details:
"We did, yeah. It got cured, luckily. I don't want to go into details, no one needs to know [the details]."
As Verstappen looks ahead to further successes, his resilience and ability to overcome such significant obstacles only add to his legend in the sport.
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