Max ahead of Chinese GP: "We"re going for a podium or the win"

Published on 12 April 2018 by Stefan Meens

Prior to Chinese Grand Prix, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen attended the FIA press conference. The first topic up for debate was the youngster’s on-track battle with Lewis Hamilton. “That’s racing. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. You can say whatever you like about the incident. I think I had a fair shot at it. It was nothing crazy, nothing risky. But yeah, unfortunately this time it didn’t work out. Looking back, for example, in Mexico last year it did work out. This time we gave each maybe not enough space, but that’s racing as well at the end of the day. Like I said, sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad.”

Max is not intending to chance his approach and become more conservative: “Why should I change something? I don’t think I did anything wrong in terms of my approach. I was just trying to overtake a car. I think it was a fair chance. I went for it”

Max is confident in his car, the RB14: “The car is very quick, I think especially in the race. I think we know in qualifying we are losing out a bit, just on pure performance, on top speed. But as soon as that all calms down a bit in the race, yeah, I was very confident, for example, before we went into the race to still move up a lot of positions, because I think the car was definitely capable of just driving back to the podium. So yeah, I’m just looking forward to get started again here, because we have a good package, and there are a lot of good things coming. So, yeah, ready to go.”

Last year, Max drove a sensational race in Shanghai to finish third after starting from P16. “Yeah, it was. That race was starting on wet tyres, so it’s always easier to get past people if you have a good feeling and a good car. So yeah, always in the dry it’s a bit more tricky. Sometimes you have those first laps where everything works out perfect.”

Finally, Max is asked for his goals for the upcoming Grand Prix weeked: “It’s always important to score points. But we are here to be on the podium and to win races, so that’s what I set out to do this weekend.”

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