Max Verstappen says that four races ago, after winning the United States Grand Prix, he would have called anyone who predicted he would still be in title contention at this stage of the season ‘an idiot’.
Leaving the first race after the summer break at Zandvoort, Verstappen was 104 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri, with just two podium finishes in his previous eight races. In the last four rounds, Verstappen won three times and finished second behind George Russell in Singapore, closing the gap to 40 points and putting him firmly back in contention.
“No, I would have told him he was an idiot,” Verstappen said about whether he would have believed someone who predicted such a quick turnaround. “We found a good way with the car. It’s that simple. Of course we made some upgrades to the car, but we understood our car a little better where we wanted to perform better.”
“Every weekend we try to achieve this. Some weekends it’s better than others, but overall the last few weekends it’s been a lot easier than before those races. That’s what we have to try to get out of it every weekend now.”
Austin saw Verstappen take 23 points off Piastri’s lead by winning both the sprint and the Grand Prix from pole position, but the Dutchman says he will have to be clear in the remaining five rounds to win the title.
“It was an incredible weekend for us,” he said. “I knew that the race was obviously not going to be super easy. I think if you look at the whole race, the pace between me and Lando [Norris] was very close.
“Just in that first stint we made the difference there. I was able to close a little gap, and that’s what we basically maintained until the end. It was not easy to manage [with] the tires during both stints, but we kept the lead and were just incredibly proud of everyone for delivering a weekend like this.
“The opportunity is there. Now we just have to try to take care of these kind of weekends until the end… try what we can. I’m just very excited until the end.”
“We have to be perfect until the end to have a chance. We have overtaken a lot, but at the same time the gaps are very small. I think you have to try to be perfect every weekend, and that is what we will try to do until the end.”
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