Max Verstappen is confident Red Bull isn't compromising their 2022 car by continuing the development of this year's RB16B.
Teams are facing a tough balancing act between remaining as competitive as possible in 2021 but also maximising their potential for next season, when all-new regulations are introduced.
But with Verstappen currently 18 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the Formula 1 championship, he wants to be sure Red Bull are focused on capitalising on their very good opportunity to end Mercedes' run of success.
“If we want to beat Mercedes we can’t let up, we have to keep putting new parts on the car,” the Dutchman said via Auto Motor und Sport.
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“As long as the chance of winning the World Championship title is so great, we have to stay on the ball.
“It would be stupid to throw something away now just to look ahead to next year. Who gives you the guarantee that we will win next year if we concentrate fully on the new car now?
“I have a lot of confidence in our engineers. They can do a good 2022 car with less time.”
Back in 2009, however, McLaren and Ferrari notably fell behind early on as they had spent more time focusing on their tense championship fight the year before in 2008.
In recent weeks, Mercedes has also indicated almost all of their development focus will now be on next year's regulations, but Verstappen doesn't believe Red Bull is risking falling behind.
“Of course, I don’t know what’s going on with other teams, I know from our side we do improve our car almost every race, which I think is very important because we have a good opportunity to have a good season,” he said after winning the Styrian Grand Prix.
“I’m confident with the people that we have in the team. Also for next year is 100%. I think so far, I don’t see that compromise. Of course, time will tell, next year, if it’s like that. But I’m fully agreeing with the approach that we have for this season.”
Last Sunday, Verstappen crossed the finish line 35 seconds ahead of Hamilton, albeit with around 15 seconds of that margin coming after the Briton's late pit-stop for the fastest lap.
But despite that, the Red Bull driver still isn't satisfied.
“We do have a very good package but I want to see it every single weekend because every track is different,” Verstappen stated.
“It’s still about finding the perfect set up on the car because it can be quite sensitive in some areas to make it work, it’s never good enough so I always want to try and improve every single weekend.
“Even a weekend like this, it looks amazing, we won by a big margin, but it’s never good enough. So we just look into the details, what we can do better and when we go to other tracks again I don’t expect it to be like today.
“We have to just keep being very focused in what we have to do. So far I’m very happy with how it’s been going, but like I said, it’s never good enough.”
