Jos Verstappen, the father to Max Verstappen is of the opinion that his son can topple the Mercedes’ pace and outrun them given Red Bull focuses on less tyre wear in their RB16B. Initially as everyone expected Red Bull man to get the better of Mercedes and their start driver Lewis Hamilton, however things didn’t quite happen as they wanted them to be.
Max Verstappen now stands at P2 with 80 points, 14 points behind Lewis Hamilton in driver’s standings. The Dutchman has been second best in most of the races to the Briton except one in Italy.
🗣 "Of course we wanted to win but I cannot feel too disappointed as I did everything I could out there and maximized the opportunities." @Max33Verstappen on his #SpanishGP 🏆👉 https://t.co/J8i5406UW1 pic.twitter.com/zwhzQolF93
— Red Bull Racing Honda (@redbullracing) May 9, 2021
Jos, Max’s father however thinks the season is still long and his son and Red Bull can still come back from behind together. In an interview with De Telegraaf, the senior Verstappen conveyed, “They say the season is going to last a long time. Personally, I think Mercedes is much faster in qualifying as well, but Max can get so much out of it that it will remain close.”
Red Bull’s RB16B, as it looked has been regarded as the fastest car on the track. But Mercedes took little time to turn the tide on them and no wonder they now lead the Constructor’s Championship.
- Race winner Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing celebrates on the podium during the F1 Grand Prix of Emilia Romagna at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari on April 18, 2021 in Imola, Italy. (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
The 49-year-old former driver further asserted on this, “We must not forget how superior they were last year. Yes, there have been some aerodynamic changes but overall the Mercedes remains a very good car.”
Jos, concluded with De Telegraaf stating, “I also think Max has to drive more to the limit in order to keep up with Mercedes. As a result, he demands a lot more from the tyres. You can see that Mercedes has a lot less tyre wear than us at the moment.”
We gave it our all and I think we maximized our race result. Today that was 2nd and the fastest lap. As a team we’ve made a huge step, but we’re not where we want to be yet so we’ll continue to #KeepPushing 🇪🇸 #SpanishGP pic.twitter.com/e3NRiPadEl
— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) May 9, 2021
Adding on, Jos Verstappen also thinks the tyre wear is a cause of concern for the Milton Keynes based team. This has been prevalent in the recently concluded Spanish Grand Prix where Lewis Hamilton came back from 22 seconds behind and overtook Max to win the race.
