“We want to be the main challengers of Mercedes” Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko views Max Verstappen a champion if given the right car.
The Dutchman Max Verstappen is the youngest debutant in Formula One history, and as expected he is looking to follow in Red Bull legend Sebastian Vettel’s footsteps to win F1 Championships.
Max Verstappen is an extremely talented driver and has a number of ‘firsts’ to his name in F1. At the age of just 18, he won the 2016 Spanish GP, becoming the youngest-ever winner of a Formula One race.
He finished the 2019 season in third place in the driver’s standings. That put him higher than the Ferrari duo of Vettel and Charles Leclerc. He has won 8 Grand Prix with Red Bull in four seasons with them.
This is good, but clearly not enough to win the Championship. Sebastian Vettel won 4 World Championships with Red Bull in an era of dominance for the Milton Keynes outfit.
If he wants to emulate Vettel’s dominance of the circuit, Red Bull needs a much superior car. Speaking to Kronen Zeitung, Marko acknowledged this:
“He feels very comfortable within the team and is in a similar situation as Vettel had when he drove for us. The most important thing is that we get a winning car for him on the track”
“And that we are the main challengers of Mercedes. Max, son of former F1 racer Jos Verstappen, is hungry and confident of achieving season glory.
Speaking to RTL, he said: “The goal of the whole team is to become champion, but in the end, it’s all about winning races. It’s going to be a very busy calendar, but I’m really looking forward to it after this long break.”
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The Formula One 2020 season kicks off next month at the Red Bull Ring, Austria, and Verstappen has a considerable advantage, since its the home-track of his team.
