Max Verstappen: “Development race” will decide title

Max Verstappen

Verstappen: “Development race” will decide title

Dutch driver calls for Red Bull to continue pushing on current car

Will Gray

Thursday 10 June 2021 05:00

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Max Verstappen believes the respective pace of development between Red Bull and Mercedes will decide this year’s title battle with Lewis Hamilton.

Verstappen took the lead of the world championship from Hamilton through his victory in the Monaco Grand Prix.

Despite failing to finish in Azerbaijan, Hamilton's error on the restart ensured the Dutchman retained his four-point lead in the standings.

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“We need to keep improving, we need to bring new bits to the car all the time, then I think we have a very good shot at it," said Verstappen.

“I do think [Mercedes] are still, on normal tracks, ahead of us, but for us so far this season we’ve had a great start compared to the other seasons and we just need to keep it up.”

Balancing development against 2022

Teams have been faced with a conundrum this year as rule changes for next season mean the cars will be completely different and resources must be balanced between developing the current cars and focusing on 2022.

Time spent on next year’s cars could deliver more gains, due to the lack of maturity in the new rules, but Verstappen believes his team must not set aside its efforts on this year’s machine too early.

Asked who, aside from him, could influence his title bid, he said: “Every single member in the team, it’s a team effort. We have to keep on bringing new bits to make it faster, and I think that’s what’s going to decide the championship.”