AUGUST 15, 2020

Verstappen not thinking about 2020 title yet

Max Verstappen says he is "not thinking about" winning the 2020 world championship yet.

Max Verstappen says he is "not thinking about" winning the 2020 world championship yet.

That is despite the fact that he beat both earlier-dominant Mercedes cars last weekend at Silverstone, when the reigning world champions struck tyre trouble.

But Dutchman Verstappen says that isn't enough to declare his Red Bull-Honda a title-winning car.

"So far we've had one race where we were maybe the fastest car," he told CNN, "but all the other ones we weren't. So we just have to stay realistic at the moment.

"From my side, I'm not thinking about a possible championship at the moment. I just want to try and do the best I can every single weekend."

Indeed, in Barcelona practice, the Mercedes was still clearly the fastest car over a single lap.

"We will of course be short on one lap," Verstappen, speaking to Ziggo Sport, admitted.

"In qualifying we will easily lose five tenths to Mercedes. But on the long runs it looks good again. Things are going a lot better for Red Bull there.

"We also don't know if Mercedes has shown everything yet. But the car feels good in the long run.

"Hopefully we can be a bit closer in qualifying and then manage our tyres well, and then we can strike," Verstappen said.

Mercedes' championship Lewis Hamilton admitted after practice that Verstappen's long run pace was "very close to ours".

"I haven't seen any blisters yet, but we didn't see them last Friday either," the six-time world champion added. "I can't say much about it yet."

(GMM)