After four Grands Prix in 2021, Max Verstappen is on one victory, while Lewis Hamilton pulled the longest end three times. After a promising start to the season, the Mercedes team clearly seemed to be the better team with the better car in the last two races. In conversation with The Telegraph father Jos Verstappen is asked about the start of the season, and whether he is afraid of another dominant Mercedes year.
“Yes, I do have that fear”, he starts off. “After the winter test and also after the first race weekend, it seemed that Red Bull had a very good car. However, Mercedes managed to turn the tide quickly. We must not forget that they were superior last year. There are some aerodynamic changes. but in general that Mercedes remains a very good car. “
According to his father, Max really has to squeeze everything out of his RB16B to stay close to Mercedes. “You can see at the moment that Mercedes has a lot less tire wear. And I also think that Max should drive more on the limit. Purely to keep up with them. That makes him demand a lot more from the tires,” he argues.
Frustrating, you could say. But at Red Bull they have not yet reached the phase of frustration, says the former driver. “Within Red Bull they are not yet frustrated. They say: it is still a long season. I personally think that Mercedes is also a lot faster in qualifying, but that Max is squeezing out so much that it is still so close together.”
“The difference in the race as in the last races is also on Saturday”, Jos claims. “Max and his race engineer still manage to get everything out of that car on that one, fast lap. They try that in the race. But then the tires wear out faster.”
The knowledge that Red Bull is normally very strong in the further development of the car during the season, offers father Jos some relief. “That is the only thing we can hold on to. Let one thing be clear: Red Bull, Honda and Max are very eager and do everything they can to win the championship.”
“We see the enthusiasm of everyone, but it is not good enough at the moment. They really have to take another step. Preferably as soon as possible, because the backlog must not become too great. We must improve in all areas. We also have to look at the strategy, I think we left it there in Barcelona. It was that Max immediately overtook Lewis, otherwise he would have driven away from Max.
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