Max Verstappen: Red Bull driver says winning F1 won’t ‘change his life’

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Verstappen and Hamilton battle for the F1 Championship all season

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen says he doesn’t feel the pressure of a Formula 1 title battle because winning won’t “change his life”.

The 24-year-old is two points behind Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton in the championship standings.

“The whole team wants to win so the mentality is definitely there,” he said before the Turkish Grand Prix.

“But you can’t force it or you have to stress about it because we always want to do our best.”

Red Bull is in the title fight for the first time since 2013 but Verstappen said he wasted no time thinking about what he could achieve by the end of the year.

“I always do my best and I know the team is doing its best,” he said.

“If it’s going to be first, that’s a great achievement – that’s what we’re working towards – but even if we finish second, it’s going to be a great season, and at the end of the day, it’s not really going to change lives.

“I enjoy what I do and that’s very important. For me, there’s not much to worry about, really.

“You just have to work hard together and then we will find out at the end of the season where that will put us. Is this the first or the second? We don’t know.”

Two-time champion Fernando Alonso said of Verstappen: “He seems to handle the pressure better than the others. Everyone is different, but for him it doesn’t seem to matter every weekend and he takes it up in the race by race.

“I think this is the best approach for the remaining races.”

Seven-times champion Hamilton said that during his many title campaigns, he learned how to deal with the pressures involved.

It’s not an issue of ignoring it, because it exists, but understanding what it would be like,” said Hamilton.

“All you can do is prepare in the best possible way, give it 100%, and what’s coming is coming, so I don’t worry about those things.

“I’ve been so lucky. I’ve been through a lot of ups and downs, but had a great time, growing so much, and not worrying about ‘what if?'” “

“I’m just trying and preparing now and that means making sure I’ve done the work with the team at the factory and then finally enjoying it.

“What an amazing season it’s been so far. It’s been very exciting for the fans, and he’s been very involved. We finally saw two teams neck and neck, which is amazing, and of course we want to win but you have to learn to let not beat everything in your life.”

Hamilton said he did not know yet if he would have to use a fourth engine to be able to pass the remaining races. This means exceeding the allowance of three engines per season and starting from the back of the grid. Team boss Toto Wolff said it was a “possibility”.

“At the moment I still have [engine] The numbers are two and three, said Hamilton. I don’t imagine we have to take number one right now, but that could change, who knows?

FIA medical car driver Alan van der Merwe and deputy medical delegate Dr Ian Roberts miss the race in Istanbul after testing positive for Covid-19 before leaving for Turkey. They were replaced by FIA Formula E safety car driver Bruno Correa, and medical representative Dr. Bruno Franceschini.

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