The Dutchman Max Verstappen ended the 2023 season on a high note by scoring his 19th victory at Abu Dhabi. Verstappen shattered multiple records while being crowned as the world champion for the third time in a row. However, the 22-race season took a toll on the Dutchman as he revealed his condition following the Abu Dhabi GP.

The 26-year-old revealed that following the final victory at Abu Dhabi, he fell seriously ill. In addition to the long season, the extended amounts of traveling caused further hindrances to the health of the reigning world champion and did not help him recover from the illness quickly.

After Abu Dhabi, I was very ill for a couple of days, so I’m still recovering from that, Plus then of course, [there was] the travelling, so that didn’t really help. – Verstappen said on Talking Bulls podcast (H&T: racingnews365.com).

Following the revelation, Verstappen added a humorous comment about not checking emails and work-related messages from F1 during the vacation. However, the break would be only for about two weeks as the team would continuously work over the winter break in an attempt to continue development for a similar season in 2024.

[Now] I will have two really nice weeks where I can just switch off, not look at my emails and F1-related stuff.

Max Verstappen missed Gianpiero Lambiase’s emails during the break

In addition to his sickness, Verstappen also talked about another humorous incident regarding his work-related emails from his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase. The Dutchman ignored three work-related emails from Lambiase. But, the 26-year-old made up for it on the same day when he met up with his engineer for work.

Max Verstappen with Gianpiero Lambiase. (via IMAGO)

Subsequently, Verstappen insisted that GP and his relationship was quite decent and nothing short of a ‘bromance’. This was evident as the pair has been working closely with each other since 2016 and share a good bond. The Dutchman also added that he would miss driving the dominant RB-19 over the break and standing at the podium of Abu Dhabi made him cherish the achievements so far in the season.

The team is meticulously preparing itself for the following season. However, it might be difficult to replicate such a dominating performance this season where Milton Keynes scored 21 race wins out of 22 total races. Despite this, Verstappen has showcased optimism over the development and aims at scoring well in the following season as well.