Max Verstappen says he is proud of Red Bull’s performance in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, in which he dominated the race but lost the drivers’ championship to Lando Norris.
The defending champion needed to win the race and let Norris finish off the podium to retain his title, leading to expectations that he would back the field to try and create opportunities for others to stay ahead of the McLaren. However, Oscar Piastri – starting on hard tires compared to the other two title contenders on mediums – overtook Norris at the start and Verstappen said it was too difficult to attempt that approach.
“To be honest, we maximized everything we could,” Verstappen said. “We put him on pole and won the race. We had a very strong pace, so there’s really not much I could have done differently.
“What made it a bit complicated was that Oscar followed a different strategy. You never know when he will enter the pits, how much pace he still has to catch up. That also makes it a bit difficult to keep the peloton together or whatever. In short, just very proud of the weekend we had. We gave it everything and the car was really fun to drive.”
“I had a lot of scenarios in my head [pre-race]but then [once] I knew that the tires Oscar had on the car would be quite difficult. I think we were probably a little too fast at the front. The others couldn’t follow it very well.
“Charles [Leclerc] Today he did his utmost to get on that podium, so that was also impressive to see. They went for a two-stop. I think even that made it more complicated because if you stay in one place it’s hard to support the whole thing. This new format here makes it even harder to do that compared to 2016 or whatever.
Verstappen admits he was paying attention to what was happening behind him as he extended his lead as he won a race for the third time in a row but fell two points short in the battle for the championship.
“I kept looking at the screen to see if anything would pop up,” he said. “The race itself went really well and I just enjoyed being in the car and driving it. Every straight stretch you keep watching to see if something happens, but at the same time that’s part of racing, so I wasn’t really worried about it.”
The Dutchman spoke highly of Norris and McLaren after the season finale, four years after his own first championship in Abu Dhabi.
“Winning your first title is something I think we all dreamed of when you got into the sport,” he said. “You’ve been working for that since you were a little kid. It’s what you dream of, so when you win your first title it’s very emotional. I hope [it is] Also for Lando.
“I saw that a lot of his family are here, so it’s important to enjoy this a lot tonight. [and] also with his team. I think this is another story that shows that even if you have tough years, if you keep working hard, you keep adding good people to the team, you can overcome all these things and become very successful again. They have had a great season together, so it is important that they enjoy it.”
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