Max Verstappen remains confident he can still become world champion with Red Bull in the coming years.
The Dutchman’s future has been subject to speculation during this year with a future move to Mercedes touted, potentially as soon as 2021.
However, having won two of the past three races and starting from pole in Hungary, Verstappen is taking note of the progress clearly being made at Red Bull.
“I have to say something to that: Even when I was young, I never thought I’d have to drive Ferrari,” he said this week when asked if he felt a future move was inevitable.
“I’ve always wanted to be in the fastest car, whether Ferrari, Mercedes or Red Bull, but I think, yes, I can do that next year with Red Bull.
“One can never be sure, and Mercedes can never be sure that they will be able to dominate next year because nobody knows who will do the best work next winter, but we have this year with Honda already taken good steps, which makes me optimistic.”
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Verstappen also still has eyes on breaking Sebastian Vettel’s record as F1’s youngest world champion, something again he wants to achieve with Red Bull.
“I still have a year for that,” he told AutoBild. “But it would have to happen next year because this year, Mercedes is too dominant.”
Though Max continues to rule it out, his recent form has some asking if he can close what is a 63-point gap between himself and Lewis Hamilton in the championship.
The 21-year-old though has does think a goal set by Red Bull’s Helmut Marko might be more attainable.
“I spoke to him about that and said, like, it was quite optimistic, five victories in the first year working with Honda,” he said.
“At the end of the day you need to get to know each other more and you learn more every race together. Of course, as soon as we won the first one Helmut was like ‘I think we can get to five’ and I was like, ‘okay’.
“It’s not bad to win one, and we’ve won two. Normally in the second half, we improve with updates to the car, so it’s possible. Hopefully, we can close the gap to Mercedes, and even Ferrari as in qualifying they are always very fast.
“To always be there, because you have an opportunity to win.”
