Max Verstappen: It’s too early to judge Ferrari’s speed in the race

The victory in Barcelona and the retirement of Charles Leclerc allowed Max Verstappen to lead the individual classification for the first time this season. After the finish, the Red Bull Racing pilot summed up the Spanish weekend…

Q: How satisfied are you with the win after a difficult race?
Max Verstappen: The race can be divided into two parts, because the first 30 laps were very disappointing for me. First I crashed in Turn 4, which was a surprise to me because I braked in the same place as always and went through the corner at normal speed. The reason was a gust of wind – one lap everything could be fine and the next lap the car has a sudden oversteer. This came as a surprise to me.

Of course the situation is not ideal as I fell back and ended up behind George Russell and Sergio Perez. Sergio was kind enough to let me through to attack George as the team was planning several strategies for us at the time.

When I started attacking George, DRS stopped working on my car on the straight – it was very frustrating. Sometimes the wing would open, sometimes it wouldn’t come off until half way down the straight, and sometimes it wouldn’t work at all. As a result I got stuck 20 laps behind George, it was difficult.

Q: Was the car damaged when you started in Turn 4?
Max VerstappenA: I didn’t have that feeling. Of course I picked up gravel but didn’t feel the car was damaged because after returning to the track it behaved as usual. Of course I was lucky in this.

Q: What about the problem with DRS? Is there anything you can do to fix it while driving?
Max Verstappen: Not. I pressed the button on the steering wheel, but the fender wouldn’t open. DRS just didn’t work and we need to fix it.

Q: Did you enjoy wrestling with George on the track?
Max Verstappen: At the time I felt a little disappointed that DRS didn’t work for me. But the battle itself turned out to be great, especially on that lap when we fought side by side into the third corner. I was outside in George’s blind spot, so he didn’t really know where I was.

Of course he roughly understood where I was, but in that corner it is difficult to leave the entire width of the car to the opponent, because you are carried to the outer radius. If I were in George’s place, I’d do the exact same thing.

Q: Apparently Ferrari took a big step forward this weekend. Are you concerned about their speed?
Max Verstappen: It’s too early to judge their speed at the race distance. Yes, the rubber degradation caused Charles to pull away from me in the early laps, but this happened in previous races. I’m not saying I don’t pay attention to things like that – they had a really strong weekend, and we have to add to this, especially on a fast lap.

However, it is too early to judge their speed on the track as the race was difficult – in such a situation it is not easy to estimate the real breakaways. We always have to improve because it is clear that the novelties they brought this weekend allowed them to take a step forward. Now it’s our turn to win back.

Q: After leaving Leclair, do you feel that modern cars have become less reliable compared to the technology of yesteryear?
Max Verstappen: I don’t think the problems are with the cars, as the engines and all the other mechanical components haven’t changed much. Yes, we have a different fuel, but it shouldn’t have that much of an impact.

We’ve had two meetings, but otherwise the reliability is at a fairly high level, so it’s hard to judge. I don’t know about the situation at Ferrari, but our problems have to do with the small things. We’re trying to fix them, and I wouldn’t say reliability issues are associated with next-generation machines.