Max happy with Friday in Spielberg: 'But it's never good enough'
Published on 10 July 2020 by Stefan Meens
On Friday evening, Max Verstappen joined Ziggo Sport’s F1 Café to review FP1 and FP2 as well as preview the remainder of his Styrian Grand Prix weekend.
After the Austrian Grand Prix last week, the Styrian Grand Prix will also be held at the Red Bull Ring. It is for the fist time in the history of Formula 1 that two consecutive events are contested at the same circuit. Max: “During my karting career that happened more often. It’s fine for me.”
After a second place in the opening practice session, the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing driver continued his strong form by clocking the fastest lap of the day in FP2. Max: “I’m a lot happier with the car. It actually feels like a different car. It’s much more predictable.”
“Last week I spun in turn one and went off track in turn six because I couldn’t really feel the car because it was nervous. That’s now gone, so I’m very happy with that. I think we’ve made a step forward. I’m not sure it’s enough to beat the Mercedes in qualifying, but we have a car we can work with now.”
Talking about qualifying, how happy do you feel with the qualifying mode on your Honda? Max: “It’s really good, but it’s never good enough of course. Mercedes appears to have made a bigger leap over the winter, so we have to keep going flat out to continue improving ourselves. We always want more,, we will never settle.”
During free practice, some of Max’ lap times were deleted after exceeding track limits. Max: “I thought I was still within the boundaries, but at least I now know where the limit is, so that’s good.”
Earlier in the day, Formula 1 confirmed Mugello as the tenth round of this year’s championship. Max: “I’ve never driven at Mugello, but every time I’ve seen a MotoGP race there, it is a beautiful track. I’m looking forward to it because I think driving a Formula 1 car around Mugello, with all its fast corners, will be special. I’m expecting a lot of fifth and sixth gear corners, which is always great.”
Last week you recorded a DNF due to a technical problem. Does that add extra pressure to your weekend? Max: “No, no extra pressure. Of course, it’s a shame we didn’t finish but I try to make the most out of every weekend.”
Max concludes: “I’m happy with today, but it’s never good enough. We can’t lean back, we always have to try to improve. We’re not yet where we want to be. Mercedes is still the favourite and we know that. We’ll keep working hard. Even when we win a race with a twenty second gap, it’s not good enough.”
