Ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, reigning World Champion, Max Verstappen, openly expressed that his chances of winning rely heavily on the retirement of his adversaries. Verstappen is due to take off from the fourth spot on the grid in Shanghai, following a hard-fought battle for pole position during the Q3 qualifying round.
Last weekend, Verstappen skillfully capitalized on unfolding circumstances to keep his McLaren competitors under pressure in Australia. However, he narrowly fell short of the top spot in Sprint Qualifying, with Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton edging him out by a mere fraction of a second. At the Sprint race of 19 laps, tyre degradation forced Verstappen to concede the third place to Oscar Piastri’s McLaren.
Verstappen maintained a steady performance throughout the qualifying rounds, successfully advancing past Q1 with his initial flying lap. This strategic move by Red Bull was aimed at preserving a set of tyres for later stages. The second qualifying round, Q2, saw Lando Norris commence his recovery from a shaky weekend, setting the fastest time thus far. Verstappen followed closely, trailing the McLaren driver by three-and-a-half tenths.
Despite demonstrating competitive one-lap pace, Verstappen’s analysis of Red Bull’s race pace during the Sprint event made it clear that victory in the Chinese Grand Prix would require some mishaps to befall the leading cars. In a candid Sky F1 interview, Verstappen asserted: “If they all retire in front of me,” when asked about his prerequisites for win.
The interviewer, Rachel Brookes, initially assumed Verstappen was jesting. However, the Dutch driver reiterated his viewpoint, stating: “No, I do. We are not fast enough. I think the lap was alright, but just very difficult to get a consistent balance out of it, every lap, every corner, basically.”
Red Bull’s efforts to refine the RB21, by deviating from chasing peak performance and working on widening the operational window of their platform, seem to be paying off. Verstappen affirmed feeling extremely comfortable behind the wheel, a sentiment that has persisted in China. However, he also acknowledged that the car’s outright performance is yet to reach the level necessary to challenge for victory solely on pace.
Drawing attention to the inconsistency between his input and the car’s response, Verstappen stated, “Then that makes it quite difficult to nail every corner plus then, in the race also when it’s not doing that, you’re probably degrading your tyres harder than cars around you and that’s not ideal.”
Despite the challenges, Verstappen feels at his peak driving-wise, even comparing favorably to previous years. He expressed his satisfaction with his qualifying laps and overall performance in the races. Nevertheless, Verstappen remains realistic about the limitations of battling without a solid base pace.
When asked about the frustration of giving his best performance but not meeting his expectations, Verstappen stated: “I just focus on myself, just trying to at least make sure that I can’t be upset with myself in terms of performance. So just trying to maximise everything I can, and try to help the team to improve the car.”
Clearly, Verstappen’s aspiration is to see the car reach its full potential. He wisely refrained from quantifying the gap between the current state and the desired performance level of the car, but he remains unequivocal about the fact that there’s still ample room for improvement.
