Verstappen looks back on first half of season: "Nothing is lost yet"
F1 News
- GPblog.com
For a while, it looked like Max Verstappen was going into the summer break with a huge lead in the championship, but two unfortunate races in Great Britain and Hungary threw a spanner in the works. The Dutchman is now eight points behind title rival Lewis Hamilton. On the website of Red Bull Racing Verstappen looks back on the first half of the season.
Another long season
With five victories in eleven races, Verstappen is currently having the best season of his Formula 1 career. For the first time, he can really fight for the world title. With retirement at Silverstone and a ninth-place finish in Hungary, the Red Bull driver lost his lead in the championship and will have to chase after the summer break. "We've had two very unfortunate races but nothing is lost yet, it's still a very long season," Verstappen said.
With only eight points behind and twelve races to go, everything is still possible. "We have the summer break now but we will keep pushing, we will never give up and we will focus on ourselves." Overall, then, he is very satisfied with the first half of the season. "Overall it has been a good start for us, we have been really competitive. But we need to be there at the end of the season as well, because that's what you're working for as a team, so let's hope it goes that way."
New records to his name
Verstappen has already broken quite a few F1 records, including that of youngest F1 driver and youngest Grand Prix winner ever, and this season he set two more. He became the youngest driver with a grand slam (pole position, race win, fastest lap and every lap in the lead) and he also became the first driver ever to win all three races of a triple-header. "I'm not focused on records," Verstappen remains sober. "My goal is to win the championship, for me that's all that matters."
Happy with his teammate
With Sergio Perez, Verstappen already has his fourth teammate at Red Bull Racing and the two get along very well, agrees the Dutchman as well. "He's a great teammate, the first few months have been good together. We get on well, he's a really cool guy and we can talk about all sorts of things, not just racing. That's always nice to have."
The season resumes on August 29 with the Belgian Grand Prix, always a highlight of the season for Verstappen. "It's my favourite circuit on the calendar and it's always fun to drive there. I hope we can get a good result, but I'll just enjoy driving the laps."