Max Verstappen says he won’t ever be snug on this yr’s championship battle due to how aggressive the season has been thus far.
Pink Bull began 2024 in wonderful kind, with Verstappen profitable 5 of the primary seven races, and ending second from pole place in Miami. Whereas there have been two additional wins since then, the final 4 races have yielded only a solitary podium, and Verstappen is cautious of the challenges from a number of fronts, even when he’s much less involved concerning the lead to Belgium after taking an influence unit penalty.
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“It’s by no means snug,” Verstappen stated. “There’s at all times issues that may go improper or can occur to you. So each weekend you could be in prime kind.
“I feel it shifts just a little bit. For certain, always McLaren has been actually fast. Mercedes has been fast, however not all over the place. And from our aspect, now we have a bit of labor to do, we all know that. Now we have just a few issues to investigate as properly, what to do with the automobile for the rest of the season.
“However alternatively, in fact, having an engine penalty [at Spa-Francorchamps], I feel if all the automobiles had that, their race would additionally look very completely different. So it’s not particularly reasonable to totally have a look at my race coming from P11, as a result of in the event you simply begin with them, the race could be very completely different.
“I feel there’s issues that perhaps we will do completely different, or analyze the issues that we’ve delivered to the automobile. And we’ll analyze all of that now over the break.”
Prime of the checklist for evaluation from Verstappen’s viewpoint is the way in which the RB20 makes use of its tires after having incessantly seen McLaren show stronger tempo in direction of the top of stints.
“I feel our major concern is the automobile,” he stated. “That’s what we should always concentrate on primarily, as a result of I feel in the event you have a look at Checo’s weekend [in Belgium], it was very optimistic, I’d say. In fact, within the race, it simply reveals that now we have difficulties with the tires – the tire life – so I feel that must be our major precedence.”
Mercedes’ run of three wins in 4 races has seen one other risk to Pink Bull emerge, however concurrently prevented Lando Norris from considerably closing the 78-point hole to Verstappen within the drivers’ standings – one thing the Dutchman is seeing as a optimistic.
“Unbelievable … I imply, I want to have it like that than one workforce all of the sudden dominating each single race,” he stated.
