Verstappen doesn't want to cheer too soon: 'We need to keep this advantage'

Max Verstappen is very happy with the result of the first race of 2023. During the press conference afterwards, the reigning World Champion expressed his joy to GPblog and others, but also acknowledged that the team should not celebrate too soon yet.

Although Verstappen now has two titles to his name, in both cases he started from behind. Both times in the past two seasons, Verstappen had to let the win go to his rival in the first race and could only take over the championship lead later.

"It’s great to finally have a car which is able to win from the start," said Verstappen. "It also helps that the car is not so overweight, it’s perfectly fine now. This is a great start, but we also know that throughout the season you have to keep developing. You have to keep that advantage going. This is exactly what we were dreaming of and what we wanted to achieve, so yeah, great day for the whole team. It has been a great start for us, this is not something we are used to. We are very happy at the moment, but we always keep working."

The opening race of 2022 was already a slap in the face for Verstappen. Not only could he not keep up with Leclerc in Bahrain, his engine eventually gave up and Verstappen had to end his race early.

"Last year was very disappointing of course," acknowledged Verstappen. "I do think our mentality has also changed a bit compared to a few years ago, in terms of how we are operating and how we are developing a car."