Max regarding his move on Hamilton: “I had to attack him, so that’s what I did”
Published on 05 October 2017 by Mike Motilall
Max Verstappen has gone from Malaysia to Japan, where the race will be held at Suzuka this weekend. By now, and nearly fit as can be, Max of course looks back very pleased at his win at Sepang. “This motivates me and shows me that once everything goes well there is a good result. The Barcelona win was a bit of luck, with a good strategy we won the race. In Malaysia I really had to do it myself, meaning overtaking someone and then control the race. Luckily everything went well.”
Max explains how his overtake maneuver on the British Mercedes-driver was built up. “He was clipping quite a lot, the team was telling me over the radio that they had told him that within a lap his battery would go back to full level, so I had to attack him that lap, so that’s what I did. He was already struggling with traction a bit out of that last corner, the lap before. So I gained a bit of time there, then I used my battery and everything seemed to work out well.”
Red Bull made a strong impression in Malaysia. Max continues: “At one point you also have to play into the strengths of the car instead of always making a compromise. That’s what we did in Malaysia and it seemed to work. Especially on a hot track, where the tyres are a key factor as well in order to get a good balance, it seemed to work for us.”
Can you compare the present car to the one in Melbourne? “It’s a completely different car in terms of balance. It’s a lot more complete. The first few races the car was really unpredictable, really difficult to set-up. Now it’s more in line of what the engineers predict, that’s positive. In the beginning of the year we were in some races far behind. To be able to come from that to where we are now, is very impressive.”
“Up until Malaysia it was really a season to forget, now at least there is a positive thing although of course I still missed a lot of points. In general we are heading into the right direction, also for next year everything is in a better place and we should be more competitive straight away.”
Regarding his chances at Suzuka, Max refrains from being too specific. “We made massive gains over the last few races, I’m of course very happy with that. But we need to show it again here, that we have a really good chassis. You always have to find the sweet spot to set it up really well. Sometimes that’s easier but at times it’s more difficult. Hopefully it will be easy here. We have to wait and see, till Friday or Saturday, depending on what the weather does.”
