Verstappen not giving up title assault

Max Verstappen insists that he and his colleagues at Red Bull are not yet giving up on challenging for the driver's and constructor's world championship titles, following his impressive Grand Prix victory in Austria on Sunday which made it three podiums in as many races for the Dutchman.

Verstappen endured a torrid start to the season and was involved in a few high-profile crashes with Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel, but has enjoyed an upturn in form recently which reached the heights of a GP win in Austria.

He is a sizeable 53 points behind the leader, Vettel, in the rankings, but he is not giving up claiming the top spot, yet.

“Well we never give up like I said," Verstappen told Sky Sports.

“It’s a good run we are having now but we still a bit more engine power and then we can definitely be in the mix.”

Red Bull boss Christian Horner echoed the sentiments of his driver, but stopped short of saying that the team could challenge for the title, instead claiming there was simply a lot more to come.

“I think we see ourselves very much as outsiders,” Horner admitted to ESPN.

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“We discussed it with Renault obviously, and there will be no nicer way of them to sign off this partnership than with an engine that hopefully produces some more wins and who knows what else.

“I think what’s concerning for us, Mercedes and Ferrari recently look like they’ve made a good step as well. Of course, nothing in Formula 1 stands still.

“Hopefully there’ll be small incremental gains over coming races because if we can do a better job on Saturdays, we have the pace in the race on Sundays.

“I think we’ve got sharp strategies, we’ve got a great pit crew, and I think that if we can improve our Saturdays, as I said, we’ll be racing more at the front.”