Max Verstappen hopes the dominance he and Red Bull had in Austria can be replicated at other Formula 1 tracks going forward.
The Dutchman didn’t just win both Grands Prix in Spielberg, he did so by the two biggest margins seen in 17 races on the current layout of the Red Bull Ring.
And with the Milton Keynes-based team currently on a run of five straight wins, four of which have come from Verstappen, the current championship leader admits his RB16B is as good as it ever has been.
“I think so,” he said via Motorsport Week on Sunday. “I thought that last week, but definitely this week it was better.
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“To win again at home at the Red Bull Ring is just incredible. I expected it to be good, but not this good, and the car was on rails.
“It was really nice to drive and the pace was incredible on both tyre compounds.
“I could push and also look after the tyres which is exactly how you want it to be and I could extend my gap lap after lap.
“Just like everyone else we learnt from last weekend and we optimised the car even more by improving the set-up.
“It’s actually hard to put into words because it was so enjoyable to drive and the weekend was the best it could be, so let’s hope we can carry on in the same way.”
Given how strong Mercedes had been in Austria last year, the advantage Red Bull enjoyed at their home track even surprised Verstappen.
“I’m a bit amazed myself how today went,” he added. “I didn’t expect it to be like this. Incredible job by everyone to deliver something like this.
“A great effort by the whole team and also by Honda. I think the whole package, these two weeks, especially here, has been incredible.
“Of course when you go into the weekend everyone sees you as the favourite. But it’s never easy to always deliver what we did today. Incredible to be honest.”
Thanks to his haul of 51 points out of a possible 52 in Spielberg, Verstappen now holds a 32-point lead over Lewis Hamilton in the Drivers’ Championship.
But while it is clear the 23-year-old is firmly in the driver’s seat, Max isn’t getting carried away.
“I’m enjoying it, but I’m also focused on the rest of the season,” he said. “It is still so long and there are still a lot of points you need to score.
“We need to make sure that every single weekend we are back up there and we basically use the whole potential of the car.
“We had a good car here in Austria especially, I think it was just very dominant, but we have to make sure that in Silverstone we are there again and that’s what we will look into now again to make sure we are very competitive there.”
