Max Verstappen has said that this year’s Formula 1 season “doesn’t really feel like a fight” for the World Championship, as he continues to contend with the strength of McLaren’s package.
The reigning World Champion has taken two victories out of eight races so far this season, sitting in third place in the Championship behind Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
McLaren has been, for the most part, the class of the field so far, with Verstappen only able to pick points up from circuits with higher-speed corners.
It has been theorised that the McLaren duo’s potential tug-of-war for points may enable the Dutchman to stick in the championship battle, particularly given that he is the out-and-out main driver of focus in the Red Bull outfit.
However, speaking to media, including Motorsport Week, ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, Verstappen conveyed that he fails to see it in this way.
“For me, it doesn’t really feel like a fight to be honest,” he said. “I just try to do my best, have a bit of fun out there. It’s not like this season up until this point is going to be in my memory forever.”
‘If car is capable of winning, I’ll win’
Verstappen was laid-back about his own glass-half-empty approach to his title prospects, saying he always has faith in his own ability, and will use that to great effect when the RB21 is capable to help him win.
“Yeah but it’s not that I don’t believe. I just rock up to the track and I do the best I can every single weekend. I don’t need to believe in it fully or not,” he said.
“I know that every time that I go out there, I do the best I can. If that’s with a car that is capable of P5, I will put it P5. If it’s capable of winning, I’ll win.
“Honestly I just approach it very simple which also doesn’t eat up a lot of energy as well so I have a lot of free time outside of that.”
Although evidently content, Verstappen admitted that he naturally “[enjoys] it more when I’m winning,” but when asked if his priorities have changed at all through the recent arrival of his first-born child, he fervently rebuffed such an idea.
“No. Nothing to do with it,” he said. “No, that is separate from Formula 1. Whatever I have in Formula 1 does not influence how I feel in private.”
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