Max Verstappen says he won’t ever be comfy on this yr’s championship battle due to how aggressive the season has been to this point.
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 end in Belgium after taking an influence unit penalty.
“It’s by no means comfy,” Verstappen stated. “There’s all the time issues that may go improper or can occur to you. So each weekend you might want to be in prime kind.
“I believe it shifts just a little bit. For positive, continually McLaren has been actually fast. Mercedes has been fast, however not in every single place. And from our aspect, now we have a bit of labor to do, we all know that. We’ve got a number of issues to investigate as effectively, what to do with the automotive for the rest of the season.
“However however, after all, having an engine penalty [at Spa-Francorchamps], I believe if all the vehicles had that, their race would additionally look very completely different. So it’s not very reasonable to completely have a look at my race coming from P11, as a result of in case you simply begin with them, the race may be very completely different.
“I believe there’s issues that possibly we are able to do completely different, or analyze the issues that we’ve delivered to the automotive. And we’ll analyze all of that now over the break.”
High of the checklist for evaluation from Verstappen’s viewpoint is the best way the RB20 makes use of its tires after having incessantly seen McLaren show stronger tempo in direction of the tip of stints.
“I believe our predominant concern is the automotive,” he stated. “That’s what we must always concentrate on primarily, as a result of I believe in case you have a look at Checo’s weekend [in Belgium], it was very optimistic, I might say. In fact, within the race, it simply reveals that now we have difficulties with the tires – the tire life – so I believe that ought to be our predominant 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.
“Incredible … I imply, I want to have it like that than one group instantly dominating each single race,” he stated.