Verstappen exclusive: Why lack of car-racing titles won't hurt Red Bull's ace

The Zoom ID suddenly changes. There’s to be no doubt whose time and attention is coming Autosport’s way. A few minutes past the agreed start point – this is a Formula 1 driver’s time and attention, after all – the camera comes back on. It’s still Red Bull’s press attache in view, but then our perspective turns.

Here’s Max Verstappen. He’s sitting in the spartanly decorated room that will be his driver’s quarters over the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend – over his shoulder, halfway through our chat, his father Jos will appear through the door and peer intently at the screen into which his son is communicating. Media engagements are part of the motorsport game, but this one feels palpably different. Throughout, there’s a sense of mixed excitement, potential, even destiny – appropriate given Verstappen’s rapid career rise, even if the term is a touch cliched.

Such is the way of things now that we’re speaking to Verstappen online – the only way to get real long-form time with F1 drivers within the COVID-19 restrictions. But it’s the timing that’s the important difference. We’re speaking just as the Bahrain GP pre-event media day is getting under way, so no one knows for sure how the 2021 pecking order will shape up. But the testing formbook – as the rest of the weekend’s events make clear – is accurate. Red Bull has F1’s fastest car.

That’s the different feeling. And it comes from every corner of the team. Only a month ago, Christian Horner was telling Autosport that his squad would “not give up in our hunt for a fifth title” – a quiet confidence made clear. Now it’s Verstappen’s turn. And because of the different aura surrounding Red Bull in 2021, the question topics reflect his season’s growing potential.

Only two days after we speak, Verstappen will put Red Bull on pole for the season opener by 0.388 seconds over Lewis Hamilton. That’s an enormous gap, which may have been approaching half a second had Verstappen not gone too wide exiting Turn 2 on his opening Q1 run and damaged his floor, which cost the Dutchman approximately 0.1s per lap for the rest of his qualifying efforts. In the race the following day, Verstappen proves that Red Bull has the pace to beat Mercedes, leading from the off and then fighting back to the front once the Black Arrows’ aggressive strategy calls take Hamilton into the lead after the race’s first third. Only his botched attempt to retake first place – which turns out to be his sole opportunity – costs Verstappen a famous win.

PLUS: The calls that decided Hamilton and Verstappen's Bahrain battle

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Now that Red Bull has been established as F1’s 2021 benchmark, and Verstappen’s place as the team’s lead driver is so far clearly untouched by Sergio Perez’s arrival in place of Alex Albon, things will become more about the team’s lead driver making the difference to the season’s outcome. Particularly in this year, where teams will struggle to make major pecking order advances thanks to the development restrictions (as well as the need to direct ever more resources towards the new rules arriving in 2022), it will be down to individual choices at key moments.

With his 10 F1 wins during Mercedes’ years of dominance, Verstappen has firmly demonstrated that he can succeed on the occasions when big risks are less off-putting because they don’t jeopardise a non-existent title fight if they go wrong. But what about being the chased rather than the chaser? Does Verstappen have what it takes to leave the feisty opportunist behind if it means making certain of the regular, but perhaps lower, points payouts that title-winning campaigns require? Predictably, he’s unequivocal.

“Once you are in that position with having a car to fight for the title, everything becomes a lot easier anyway,” he says. “Of course, there’s pressure to win a championship, because you’re fighting other people. But, overall, I think it’s a much better situation to be in, than always just not. Because then you have to take a lot more risks all the time to try and get a good result. And you have to risk it a bit more in lap one or a certain area in the race. Then, mistakes can happen.

"You have to give credit to Lewis. But there are a lot of other people in F1 who are very good, very strong, and would have been very good in that car as well" Max Verstappen

“So, I’m just looking forward and hoping of course that I have a car to be in a championship fight, because that’s where I think I am even better. Then it’s a lot nicer and a lot easier to deal with.”

It’s intriguing to put this question to Verstappen, precisely because of his extraordinary career so far. After making such a splash during his sole season racing in European Formula 3 in 2014, where he finished third in a championship won by Esteban Ocon, Verstappen’s instant promotion into F1 means he does not have a championship title in car racing.

But he was ultra-successful in karting, winning the 2013 World KZ championship among a host of other accolades at that level. This, he says, explains why he’s unfazed by the potential glory awaiting him in 2021. We wonder what, if anything, does faze the 23-year-old…

“It’s very different [being in a title fight],” says Verstappen. “Of course, that scenario, you don’t need to win every single battle or race. But that’s a natural thing. It doesn’t mean that because I didn’t win a title, for example, that I don’t understand that. Because I won many titles in go-karting and it’s basically the same – you choose your battles. Also, I only had one attempt of winning a title in F3, and of course, yeah, it didn’t happen.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 2nd position, on the podium

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

But the right mindset and approach necessary to win a championship will likely be critical to the final destination of this year’s title. Verstappen is taking on the joint-best driver in F1 history in terms of championship success, one who has more race victories than any other. Hamilton has made it his business to rack up titles for Mercedes. He knows exactly how to play a campaign perfectly, whether it’s not panicking after a slow start (not that this applies in 2021, with his Bahrain GP victory his third F1 season-opening win in 15 career attempts), riding momentum waves as other teams come to the front before fading away, or taking his chances when another squad has the edge, such as in 2018.

Since 2014, Hamilton has established himself as F1’s megastar. Nico Rosberg retired after giving all he had just to defeat Hamilton once over the course of a season, an accomplishment that appears all the more remarkable as years pass. Valtteri Bottas is yet to show he can get anywhere near besting Hamilton as Rosberg did, even if he is a rapid driver in his own right. Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso came up short for Ferrari, with the Spaniard’s new start at Alpine unlikely to bring him back into the leading fight until 2022 at the earliest (and the same can be said for Vettel joining Aston Martin). Charles Leclerc is at the mercy of Ferrari’s car deficiencies. Only Verstappen has the pace and package to take on F1’s incumbent star.

And that’s why Red Bull’s testing and Bahrain pace sent F1 interest levels soaring. It matters little to outside observers whether it’s the team’s impressive 2020 development work and off-season efforts to cure the RB16’s unpredictable handling, or Mercedes’ downforce losses from the changes to the rear floors being greater because of its low-rake aerodynamic concept, that has resulted in a genuine multi-team scrap at the front of the grid. To many, having two leading driving talents engaging in a battle for the ages is what counts. After all, there’s a reason why 2012 springs so easily to mind, despite the near decade that has passed since that season…

The respect between Verstappen and Hamilton is clear. Autosport seems to somewhat disarm Verstappen when we ask: “Other than yourself, who is the best driver in F1?” But his answer is telling in the context of the title fight that seems to be unfolding in 2021.

“Man,” he says after a moment of reflection, “you know it’s super-hard, but of course you have to give credit to Lewis – the way he has dealt with all the years, to always come back and be honoured and win that amount of races and championships. You definitely cannot go around Lewis.

“But, of course, there are still a lot of other people in F1 who are very good, very strong, and would have been very good in that car as well. But still, of course, the way Lewis has won and also sometimes in tricky races. Like last year in Turkey. To win that race, I think he did very well. Yeah, definitely, he is one of the best ever in F1.”

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12 Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B

Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

Hamilton has long claimed that he would welcome a greater challenge at the front of the grid, particularly from the up-and-coming drivers at rival squads. There’s a discernible sense that the 36-year-old is well aware that he must continue raising his game if he is to stay ahead. Get complacent for even a moment, and Hamilton knows Verstappen and co will pounce.

Consider the 2020 70th Anniversary GP. Mercedes had utterly dominated the previous weekend’s British GP, despite the late-race tyre dramas making it appear a closer event than it was. But the second time around, the one-step-softer tyre compounds exposed a slight weakness in the Black Arrows, which Verstappen exploited to take a stunning victory just five races into a season that some had suggested Mercedes could whitewash, such was the W11’s early-season pace advantage. And he did it so calmly, so emphatically, his late radio messages to engineer Gianpiero Lambiase evidence of a top-class driver excelling on a day where they knew they were the best.

Speaking in the aftermath of his Bahrain win, Hamilton said he was “super-excited and super-happy for the fans” keyed up by the prospect of a year-long fight against Verstappen in 2021. “It’s something the fans have wanted for a long time,” he continued. “Of course, this is only one race, so we don’t know what the future holds in terms of [the rest of the season’s results.] With the pace they have, they could be ahead a lot more, but we’re going to work as hard as we can to try and stay close in this battle, and I hope for many more of these sorts of races with Max and Valtteri. There’s a long way to go – 22 [races]. Holy crap! I’ll be grey by the end of this!”

"I do watch other people and review stuff, but I am not someone who copies. I’m myself. Because if you copy stuff from others, you’re always going to be behind" Max Verstappen

Although this may be reading too much into Hamilton’s words at this stage, they appear to contain the barest suggestion of mind games. By acknowledging the clear pace gap Red Bull enjoys over Mercedes on the evidence of the season opener – and it would be wise to point out again that one race provides a very small data set at a track that can be considered an outlier thanks to its abrasive surface and windy setting – Hamilton could be trying to put early pressure on his rival.

After all, as well as claiming consistent points with reduced risk-taking, successful title campaigns generally don’t contain a series of driver errors. So it’s interesting that Verstappen highlights Hamilton’s 2020 Turkish GP win as a standout, because in that event the Red Bull racer made a critical mistake, half-spinning while overtaking the Racing Point of Perez, just when his own impressive win was a real possibility. And the 2021 Bahrain race also contained a significant Verstappen error, even if it was a minor one in the moment. His slip off the road catching an oversteer snap as he went side by side with Hamilton at the Sakhir track’s controversial Turn 4 right-hander cost Verstappen his only chance to reclaim the lead.

PLUS: How Verstappen's Bahrain mistake can only make him stronger

But perhaps this will benefit Verstappen in the long run. And this theory comes from Hamilton, who also said in the race’s aftermath: “We were fortunate today with Max going wide in Turn 4, but that won’t happen again.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 2nd position, and Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1st position, on the podium

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

Verstappen has already proved that he can adapt his approach after making errors – most famously after his run of mistakes in early 2018, after which he delivered a string of exceptional performances. That turnaround showed that the glare of the spotlight doesn’t hold him back, but that sensation is only set to intensify if the title fight pans out as many expect. Simply put, Verstappen needs to show he can cut out the minor errors to avoid losing another race where Red Bull has the edge, especially when he’s taking on a driver who has proved he can win with a slower car.

“You get more and more experience, so everything naturally becomes a bit easier,” he says when asked if he feels more complete as an F1 driver, compared to his sensational debut victory for Red Bull (after 23 races for Toro Rosso) in the 2016 Spanish GP. “You get more understanding of the car, and especially when you stay with the same team, how everything works within the team. And myself as a person, of course you grow – that’s natural, just becoming older. But in general, I think I’m still the same person.

“[Becoming a more complete driver] is just general understanding of F1 and the F1 car itself within the team. Your driving, handling certain situations – if that’s a race start, or lap one or looking after tyres. And that’s just a very normal thing. Because when you are in your first year in F1, compared to whatever – year six/seven – naturally you become a better driver.”

Verstappen was in a unique position for much of 2020, as the only driver able to live with the relentless and stunningly high pace the W11 pilots could reach. Race after race he qualified or finished third, usually gamely hanging on to the rear of one or both of the Mercedes.

But, despite having seen up close what Hamilton does to gain an edge – against outside rivals or his intra-team competition from Bottas – Verstappen’s approach is not to follow another’s example. It’s worth remembering his age, 23, when reading the iron-clad certainty of his words.

“No, I don’t look at it like that,” he says. “I first look at what I could have done better or different – after every single race. I do watch other people and review stuff, but I am not someone who copies. I’m myself. Because if you copy stuff from others, you’re always going to be behind – first of all because you’re not innovating and becoming better than them. Of course, you can just look at it, you can observe it. But at the end of the day, I’m myself and I think that works the best for me.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB15

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Red Bull needs that inner steel Verstappen possesses. The team’s decision to hire Perez after two years of failing to adequately duplicate Daniel Ricciardo’s results in its other car was surely an acknowledgement that its driver line-up was unbalanced, and therefore weaker overall compared to Mercedes’. But even if Perez does prove to be a significant upgrade on Albon or Pierre Gasly (his tumultuous Bahrain weekend means there is still no conclusive evidence of this, with the Mexican also suggesting it will take him five races to be fully settled in), Red Bull still needs Verstappen to be leading the way as he has done over the past three seasons.

As Verstappen explains, the RB16B appears to be a successful reworking of its volatile predecessor, in part thanks to its tweaked rear-suspension design. And the car’s advantage at this stage is significant, even if too few events have passed to be certain that it’s the class of 2021, because of the almost unique technical development restrictions imposed on the season.

PLUS: Is this Red Bull's best chance to beat Mercedes?

It cannot be automatically assumed that Mercedes will simply develop its way out of trouble this year. But the team has not revealed how it has spent its development tokens, and F1’s best team is more than capable of fine-tuning its current package into an even more formidable force, so it may yet improve against Red Bull’s strong start. Mercedes simply won’t give up – and neither will Hamilton.

"For me it doesn’t matter what driver you’re fighting against at the end of the day. I think there’s so many good drivers in F1. Of course, some have won more titles than others, some haven’t won anything. But there’s just a bit of luck as well" Max Verstappen

If Verstappen does go on to score what would be a sensational first car racing title in 2021, it’ll be even more significant precisely because of that incredible competition. Hamilton and Mercedes have been so successful that the driver who ends their run will go down in history, in much the same way that Alonso will forever be remembered as the driver who closed the Michael Schumacher era, and Schumacher himself took on the mantle of F1’s benchmark racer from Ayrton Senna. That is what stands before Verstappen in 2021, even if he won’t be drawn on such speculation.

“Nah,” he replies, certainty seeping through his dismissal of our question. “For me it doesn’t matter what driver you’re fighting against at the end of the day. I think there’s so many good drivers in F1. Of course, some have won more titles than others, some haven’t won anything. But there’s just a bit of luck as well. There are world champions, really for a lot of years, but that doesn’t mean they were the only great drivers who were actually around at that time. You just need the luck – that you’re in the right team, at the right place and are dominant for a long time. And that not always happens.

“You have to accept that; ‘I hope that I will be in a position to fight for a championship or whatever, in the near future.’ If that’s going to be one, seven or whatever – I mean, that’s just up to how long the team will stay dominant.”

There’s no doubt that Max Verstappen knows how good he is, and appears utterly unfazed by his potential. Now comes his biggest test, but it’s one for which he is certainly ready.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images