Max Verstappen struck an upbeat tone on Red Bull’s performance following a solid third place at the United States Grand Prix.
After a run of difficult races since the summer break, the Dutchman gave Mercedes their only real competition at the Circuit of the Americas as Ferrari unexpectedly slumped.
This after Max had also finished only 0.067s off pole on Saturday despite single-lap pace being the normal weakness of the RB15.
“I think in general it is very positive for us to be that close in qualifying,” he commented.
“Compared to last year we made a really big step forward and in the last two races, we’ve been a lot more competitive, so that’s very positive.
“I think we are definitely improving and learning and also looking ahead for next year and we are definitely going in the right direction.”
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As for his race performance, Verstappen added: “We did the best we could, they were just a little bit faster today.
“It was a very good race and it was fun. I could still see the cars ahead of me and we had good pace today.
“In general I’m very pleased. The whole weekend has been smooth and we didn’t really have a lot of trouble with set-up or whatever, so to be here in the top three – of course I would like to be sat in the middle – but it’s still very positive.”
The 22-year-old also believes second place was very much attainable before Kevin Magnussen’s brake failure at Turn 12, with the resulting yellow flags removing the best opportunity to overtake.
“Yes, absolutely,” Verstappen said. “Just because of that we had to lift off otherwise, I would have definitely gone by. But that’s how it is, sometimes these things happen.”