Verstappen: I hope our advantage lasts for a long time

After the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen made no secret of his dissatisfaction with how his weekend went, but he hopes Red Bull Racing can maintain a lead over rivals for a long time to come.

Q: You recovered perfectly: did everything go as you planned before the start of the race?
Max Verstappen: I don’t think much about it. Although, realistically speaking, with or without a safety car, I believe that a maximum of 2nd place could be counted on. In the very first laps it was not easy to chase rivals on this urban circuit, after all there are fast corners here and the barriers are very close.

In addition, the car skidded on the track. But after a few laps everything started to normalize, things got a little better and I was able to overtake my rivals one by one. And the pace was good.

Of course the safety car helped me get back into the race, but I still lost a lot of time compared to Sergio. Therefore, the backlog was, shall we say, already pretty decent when I got into 2nd position.

But on this track there is very little rubber degradation, so of course I tried to close this gap. But then, at some point, the vibrations started up again at the rear of the machine in the drive area. The team saw no problem with this, but I’m sure there was something strange going on with the balance.

I thought I couldn’t close the gap because there were only 10 laps to go before the finish. So I decided it was more important to finish second than to get into trouble with the car.

Question: Can you tell us more about these vibrations? Did it feel the same in qualifying before the breakdown? Did you hear the same sound then?
Max Verstappen: Yes, of course, and then in qualifying everything just fell apart. Luckily that didn’t happen today, but the feeling was similar to what I heard.

Q: You had to be nervous, yet you have an incredibly fast car. You drove at least a second faster than the other teams. How long do you think Red Bull Racing can maintain this advantage?
Max Verstappen: Hopefully a long time. But it is important that the machine is not only capable of a good pace – it is also necessary to work reliably. I want to say that the first race weekend was not too smooth: then, for the first Grand Prix, the balance changed a lot compared to what was on the tests. There were other moments, but they happened behind the scenes.

And now, after three practice sessions, which went well, there was a problem in qualifying. Of course I recovered and finished second, which is good, so of course everyone in the team is happy overall. But personally I’m not happy.

I’m not here to finish second, especially after all the great work I’ve done at the base of the team to prepare well for this race and make sure everything is right.

And after that I had to earn back in the race – I don’t like it. I have nothing against it, but when you’re fighting for a championship, and especially in a situation where it looks like there’s a rivalry going on between our two cars, you have to make sure these two cars work reliably.

Question: At the end of the race, you and your partner “exchanged strokes” even though you occupied the first two positions. Can you share your impressions of the race Perez had? Do you agree with Christian Horner who said this was Sergio’s best race for Red Bull Racing?
Max Verstappen: Yes, I think he did it very confidently. I think we both like the way the machine works. In addition, in my opinion this is a cool circuit and you feel it especially good when everything is in order with the balance of the car.

In general, it’s nice if you can really attack. So the fast laps at the end of the race gave me fun, but only to the point where I had to slow down because of vibrations.

Q: Were there agreements between you and your partner about the best lap of the race?
Max Verstappen: A few laps before the finish I asked the team what the best result of the lap was at that moment. The main thing is that we can compete, we get this freedom and of course we get some time. But it was the same in Bahrain, we had to ask. And I think it’s very normal to be interested in the best lap time.

Q: If Red Bull Racing maintains such a big advantage, are you worried about your partner becoming your main rival? And what will you do in this area?
Max Verstappen: If everything is exactly like that, then everything should be very simple, agree? Since we are allowed to compete with each other, the best of us will come first.