Max previews upcoming Silverstone race: 'Keeping the pressure on them'
Published on 04 August 2020 by Niels Hendrix
Talking to Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, Max Verstappen looks back at the British Grand Prix, where he finished second, his third podium in a row. Despite the qualifying gap to Mercedes, is it satisfying to get everything out of the car and score so many points for the team?
Max: “Yeah, it is because we’re maximising our results every weekend. I guess even more so actually because we’ve finished second in the last two races so that has been good. Of course we’re still lacking quite a bit of pace to them, especially in qualifying but also in the race on tracks like Silverstone, so we haven’t really been able to fight them for victory but we are keeping the pressure on them.”
“It’s still good to be on the podium and you never know for the upcoming weekend what can happen, the end of the last race was pretty crazy! The tyre compounds this weekend are going to be softer, the weather is going to be warmer and the strategy could be different so I’m looking forward to it. We’ve had a week at Silverstone now so everyone knows what they’re doing around the track, so let’s see if we can learn even more about the car and try to improve it further.”
Do you think having back to back races at the same track is beneficial in helping to learn more about the RB16 knowing the early season complexities of the car?
Max: “It’s always good to be at the same track so you can back to back a few things on the car to see what they do. Of course you still have to be a little bit careful with the conditions as they can be different but overall I think it’s a good thing and I’m sure the engineers like to collect this sort of data.”
Next weekend with the different tyre compounds could make for a two stop strategy. Do you hope for a less lonely race?
Max (laughs): “Let’s see. I hope I’m counting less sheep this weekend though!”
You're only six points behind Bottas in the championship. Is it about keeping the pressure on them and being there or thereabouts in order to capitalise all opportunities?
Max: “Yeah, of course we got lucky with Valtteri’s puncture that dropped him outside of the points, but I just keep doing what I’m doing and pushing every weekend. Hopefully we can put the pressure on and there are still a lot of races left this year. We have to be realistic about where we are on pace at the moment and fighting them for victories and the championship under normal circumstances is quite tricky but the car is getting better, it’s more predictable, so if we can keep in touch then there is always a chance. We’ll keep pushing to close the gap and we will try not to make life easy for them.”
