Max Verstappen will miss ousted engineer Pujolar

Max Verstappen has admitted he will miss working with his ousted Toro Rosso engineer Xevi Pujolar. Not only is the experienced Pujolar not accompanying the young Dutchman to Red Bull, he has been ousted from formula one altogether.

Ilta Sanomat, a Finnish newspaper, reports that Pujolar and Verstappen's data engineer Olivier Helvig have both left the Faenza team after a row with boss Franz Tost in Russia. The report said there are rumours the engineers defied team management's directions with regards to the choice of tyres.

"I had a good working relationship with Xevi, which is important to perform well," Verstappen told the Dutch broadcaster RTL. "But at Red Bull, they also have very good engineers. So it's a pity that Xevi is not joining me but on the other hand it's good to embrace a new adventure and you need to learn to adapt as well," he said.

It is believed that from Barcelona Verstappen will simply work with Daniil Kvyat's former engineering team, headed by Gianpiero Lambiase. He admitted it will be a challenge to immediately face off against his new and on-form teammate Daniel Ricciardo, but smiled: "What pressure?"

"I have a teammate that has proven to be very fast," Verstappen, 18, told the Ziggo Sport broadcaster. "I will try to learn as much as possible because I'm getting into a new car in the middle of the season. But I have engineers to help me with that -- we hope that we can have it sorted in a few weekends." (GMM)