McLaren in a ‘different competition’ to Red Bull – Verstappen | Racer

Max Verstappen says that he was unable to fight with the McLaren drivers in the Dutch Grand Prix because he racets ‘in another competition’ than the two title candidates.

Oscar Piastri was in charge at the start in Zandvoort, but Verstappen was able to catch up with Lando Norris and tried to attack Piastri. From there he soon lost the second place of Norris and could not take on another challenge despite several Safety Car Restart and running softer composite tires, and says it is not worth fighting too much against the McLarens.

‘I hoped for a little more [in the race]But I quickly realized that the pace wasn’t there, “said Verstappen.” It always seems as if we are struggling in the race more than more than one round with the tire behavior, by car, and that was clear again. So I just tried to manage my pace, but that actually meant that it was more a fight with the cars behind me than what happened to me.

“The beginning was good to be honest. Then I tried to go around the turn 1 around. Then in turn 2, but there is always a lot of sand in that corner from the center of the track to the edge. With the soft compound I just still pushed the entrance and then went a bit sideways on the way to turn 3, but it was completely good.

“I still wanted to have a little fun. When I got ahead [of Norris]I just followed my pace and that meant that at some point Lando was progressing again. You could see, it’s a different competition. It makes no sense to ruin your own race and defend very hard or to lose two, three laps that defend for your life. Unfortunately it makes no sense. “

Norris then retired with a mechanical issue in which Piastri led his championship to 34 points, but Verstappen says that his title experiences have shown him that the situation can change quickly again.

“It’s outside of your control. So you just have to keep working hard, keeping to win. It is that simple. Especially if your teammates are, you have the same car, the same chances. It is probably a bit more complicated than when they are two different teams, but still many races and you can see things hurling.

“You don’t know if you get a mechanical failure or not, it’s outside of your control. So yes, it’s not ideal, but there are enough races to turn it around or not, and time will learn.”