“It’s just choosing your moments when to shine”– Max Verstappen on his fight against Lewis Hamilton this season and world title hopes.
Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton have decided to vie against each other for the 2021 title, with Verstappen having a better car to compete with last year.
The Dutchman ahead of the Portuguese Grand Prix revealed that his title challenge against Hamilton is about picking up the moments to shine.
“I don’t think you lose speed,” Verstappen said. “It’s just choosing your moments when to shine. I mean, you have to understand that if it’s not your day, then you have to settle for a certain result,” he explained.
“Whereas in the past, we sometimes had a car where we could win races, but we knew we were not in a championship fight, so that you might risk it a bit more.
“Of course, when you are in a championship fight or at least you know that you have a car which can be competitive more often, your approach does change a little bit because you cannot afford to lose too many points in a weekend where, let’s say, you’re not at your top level.
“So I think that’s what we always have to make sure that even if we don’t have a perfect weekend, we still score a lot of points.”
It’s incredibly close.
Verstappen then said that he has to be focused during every Grand Prix, as with the location, there would be a different favourite, but even that factor didn’t work in the last two races.
“I always feel confident. That’s nothing to do with if you win a race or not,” he said. “I just hope that we are, again, very competitive as the last two races.
“But again every single weekend you just have to make sure that you’re on top of the car, to try to get the best out of it, because it’s so close between us and Mercedes that you really do have to get the best out of it to make a difference.”
“And that’s what we’ll try to do again this weekend.”
