Max Verstappen has warned Red Bull against complacency this season.
Red Bull got off to a dream start this season, with Verstappen winning more races than Hamilton. However, the momentum swung in Mercedes’ favour after the British and the Hungarian GP. There, Verstappen suffered a DNF and a P9 respectively, while Hamilton’s P1 and P2 brought with them a massive points swing in their favour.
Verstappen said he saw that coming, and admitted that keeping up stellar wins and momentum is very difficult. In the press conference after his victory at the Dutch GP, Verstappen warned Red Bull against complacency this season, and urged the team to not let weekends like Britain and Hungary happen again.
“You shouldn’t look at statistics,” Verstappen said.
“You have to look at the race pace, not the results. That’s why I also thought, and I also said this during the summer break, we really need to speed up the pace, because otherwise they (Mercedes) will run away with it.”
Room for improvement
Verstappen declared he was pleased with the team after those terrible races. The Dutchman credited the improvement of the team starting from the second half of the season. However, he is adamant that they should not take things lightly, and has called on the team to be faster for the upcoming races.
“We still need to be faster, but it’s going in the right direction,” Verstappen said.
“There are still a lot of different circuits to come. So it will go both ways anyway. We have to keep pushing and keep developing the car and bringing new parts,” he concluded.
The next race is at Monza, completing the second triple header of the season. Verstappen leads the WDC as it stands, but he knows it is a lead that can evaporate in one race itself.
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