Max and Red Bull Racing are motivated: 'We want to keep winning'

Published on 06 February 2023 by Mike Motilall

The RB19 has been revealed by Oracle Red Bull Racing in New York and Red Bull Powertrains together with Ford will be developing a new power unit for 2026 and beyond. After this news Max talks about how he has recharged during the Winter break. “It was not much about enjoying the win but more about spending time with family and friends, having a good time and relaxing, enjoying the weather. Not having to think about Formula 1 for a moment.”

Max continues: “I think over the years it gets easier and easier to disconnect, with the experience you get throughout the years you know what you have to do and what you cannot do, before you start preparing again for the new year.”

Do you feel a bit different heading into this year? “Not really, it’s just having to focus on myself because I always want to try and be better. It’s the same with the team, we always want to try and achieve more. We know we had an incredible season last year. We want to stay there we want to keep on winning.”

How hard do you think it’s going to be since Red Bull Racing has less time in the wind tunnel compared to other F1-teams? Max: “For sure it won’t make it easier but I think we have a lot of good people back at the factory in Milton Keynes who can manage that and we just have to be a little smarter with our time available. We just keep on pushing.”

“We are excited and we also are very focused on improving the car. We already know from last year the experiences we had and what we want to improve. And that is what we are working on so hopefully once the car hits the ground, it’s feeling good. We are all motivated to get going again as a team. Basically score as many points and victories as we can together.”

How important is it to hit the ground running? “Very important. We don’t have a lot of time in pre-season to get on top of things, I do expect it to be a little easier, last year the car was completely new and we had to figure out a lot of stuff, but again it’s about reliability and understanding the car’s behaviour and there are still a few rule changes. Hopefully we are on top of it and we can have a better start to the year than last year.”