Verstappen's not focused on McLaren: 'I focused on myself'
F1 News
- Savannah Lenz
Max Verstappen reflected on the Chinese Grand Prix with mixed feelings. While he is satisfied with where he was able to end up, he admits that the McLaren's are still in a better position than him.
Verstappen immediately lost positions on the first lap of the race. However, he was not upset about that. "To be honest, I think the first lap actually worked out nicely for me because my pace was anyway not up to their standards. So, actually, to be immediately behind them was a better problem. Because I just drove my own pace like we set out to do."
"The previous sprint, and also because in Australia, you try to fight, but at the moment, that is not the level of the others around me. But then on the hard tyre, it got a little bit better. In the beginning of that, I was still struggling for pace, and they drove away."
Verstappen mainly watching himself
Verstappen explained that he is not in a position to yet battle with either Mclaren. He said "I focused on myself because I didn't really expect to have any kind of battle. I mean, honestly, I just expected how the first stint played out. If I would just stick to my own pace, that's what I did."
Verstappen said he was "bit positively surprised" about his tyres. "I would say, the second stint. Gives us a bit more hope and probably a direction as well, that they came to, but it's a question of where we want to be."
Regarding the issues surrounding the RB21, Verstappen does not yet know about those being fixed. "It's impossible to say, because it might, it might not. We just keep working. We just have to stick together, push hard, that's what we all do. I know that the team is working flat out. I never doubted that anyway. We just keep on trying to improve."
This article was written in collaboration with Marnik Kok.
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