Max Verstappen exclusive on title battle with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri and why he ‘never settles for not good enough’
Despite Red Bull’s improvement and McLaren’s fallibility, Verstappen said he was “pretty surprised” going into the final race still with a title shot.
“Normally, when you’re that far down, and of course up to that point it was going up, up, up, up, right? So there’s no real hint at that moment that we’re going to be able to turn this around or at least close that gap significantly.”
“But we did it, and that’s something we’re very proud of. And I’m happy to be involved in this fight until the end. At the same time, I think the fact that it’s not just between two drivers of one team makes it exciting for everyone. It’s always better when there’s another team involved.”
He says that if he wins, it won’t be the most satisfying season for him. For this, he chose 2023, when he won 19 of 22 races.
“It was a really good season, probably my best season, but it was also frustrating at times because we weren’t fast enough.”
Even so, he knows what he has accomplished.
“As a driver you’re always trying to improve, you’re trying to become more versatile,” he says. “Some weekends I drew some conclusions that probably weren’t realistic or possible, so yeah, I’m happy.”
He says he does this by “always trying to look for details, just trying to learn about the car, learning about yourself and doing a lot of things outside of F1 as well.”
“Of course I’m driving many different cars,, external I don’t think racing in F1 will hurt you. So yeah, I’m trying to make yourself a little more complete, a little more versatile.”
