Max in Spain: "Last year was nice, but I want to win more"

Published on 11 May 2017 by Stefan Meens

A year after his first Grand Prix win, Max Verstappen is back in Barcelona for the 207 Spanish Grand Prix. The Dutchman joined the FIA press conference to chat about his first win and the season so far.

Last year’s win does not add any pressure beliefs Max. “I don’t think there is more pressure. Last year was more intense. But it’s always good to come back here. Of course last year was very positive but I want to win more. I’m not here for just onevictory. It’s now 2017 and 2016 is over. I want look forward and focus on the race.”

Despite gaining a lot of experience in the last year, Max finds it difficult to pin point in what way he has improved. “Generally speaking I have more experience, both in life and racing. But apart from that, not much in terms of driving faster. It’s really all about the details. If you cool the car more, you understand it better too."

Despite being in one of the top teams on the grid, Max is still eager to learn. “It’s difficult to learn from others that aren’t in your team because you don’t have all the info. But I watch the races, the overtakes, the starts, tyre management, anything that happens during the race. You’re always looking at your competitors, what they do and what lines they take. It’s something you do through the entire weekend. You always try the learn something, every weekend.”

Red Bull Racing are bringing plenty of updates to this Grand Prix weekend. Max is hopeful the upgrades will give him more speed. “Everyone brings upgrades but hopefully ours take us nearer the front. You’ll see the changes on the car and hopefully we close the gap to the front. We have to try to improve in any area.”

During the last race, a lot of drivers struggled to get temperature into the tyre.”In general, Sochi did not offer much grip. You saw a lot of warm up laps and two consecutive timed laps. It will be different here. The tarmac has more grip and tougher on the tyres. But we’ve got the hardest compound so we’ll have to wait and see. Normally you opt for the softes tyres, and it will be the same here so I think the warm up will remain crucial."

The race in Sochi only featured one overtake. Max is clear on why that was the case: “It’s more difficult to follow the car in front. But the race was a one stopper as well. We could’ve probably done the race without stops. It just makes things more difficult. In Bahrain we struggled more with the tyres. There you saw five cars follow each other and challenge each other more. I think we need slightly softer tyres to have more exciting races. On the other hand, the cars are wider and generate more dirty air. If you follow someone, you lose a lot of downforce. In combination with the higher corner speeds it means it’s more difficult to overtake."

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