Max Verstappen reflects on Red Bull’s aggressive strategy in Canada, despite finishing behind Mercedes’ George Russell in the F1 Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen started second on the grid and finished the race in the same position at the Canadian Grand Prix.
The Red Bull Racing driver was unable to challenge George Russell for the win—neither at the start, through strategy, nor on raw pace. However, he still made gains in the championship battle against the McLaren F1 drivers.
Did he feel he missed an opportunity to take victory on track? Not really—the Dutchman actually praised Red Bull’s “aggression” with its strategy in trying to overtake the Mercedes F1.
“No, not really, to be honest. During the first two stints, I struggled a lot with the tyres—too much degradation, once again. So, on paper, we ran a pretty defensive race, to be honest, because on two occasions, Kimi was about to overtake me, and we made a pit stop. That actually worked out quite well for me.”
“But in reality, we adopted a very aggressive strategy to try to shake things up. I think at the final pit stop, I was a bit concerned whether I’d be able to finish the race competitively, because I was already struggling on the hard tyres during the second stint. So, I think a lighter fuel load helped a bit. But even though the gap to George wasn’t that big, I never really felt I had the pace to do anything.”
“It was mostly about looking in the mirrors, trying to manage the gap, taking care of the tyres to avoid overpushing them. It wasn’t the easiest race, but I think we managed it well as a team. We maximised everything, because honestly, throughout the race, I never really felt like I could hold on to second place. So yes, we did a good job. I mean, over the course of the weekend, I think the car was reasonable. On the strategy side, we did our best.”
Does that give him confidence for what’s ahead?
“I hope we can start each weekend like this, based on how the car felt, but overall, we need more performance to be fast everywhere. I also think this weekend was a bit—well, I wouldn’t call it a break—but McLaren wasn’t as strong as usual. And of course, we took advantage of that a bit. But if we look at all the upcoming circuits, we will definitely need more performance to be close to them. This weekend was good for us, but we need a lot more to fight them over the rest of the season.”
Does he still feel he can challenge them for a fifth title?
“To be honest, there’s still a lot that needs to happen for that. We have to win races more often. And how do we do that? By being more competitive. It was a good weekend, but again—not enough. Like I said, we may have moments where we can win here or there, but we just need to make the car faster. Then we’ll make life easier for ourselves. We’re working hard on that with the team.”
“Of course, upgrades are coming, but will they be enough? I don’t know. In this world, it’s small margins that bring better results every weekend. But what McLaren has shown so far this season is quite extraordinary and tough to beat. Sure, this weekend wasn’t their best, but they’re still clear favourites. And they won’t be easy to beat. That’s why we really want to improve our car for the next races.”