Max Verstappen believes Red Bull still need to close the performance gap to Mercedes before having any Formula 1 title aspirations in 2020.
Last weekend, the Dutchman ended the German manufacturer’s 100% winning start to this season by claiming a surprise victory in the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone.
It’s a result that moved Verstappen into second in the Drivers’ standings, with many pointing out he’d be almost level with Lewis Hamilton had Max not retired from the first race in Austria.
But despite the sudden hope that potentially this season won’t simply be Hamilton vs. Bottas for the title, the Red Bull driver wasn’t getting excited.
“For me it’s still pretty much the same as even before the race last week,” he said of his championship chances ahead of the Spanish GP.
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“I think we still need to find pace, we still need to improve, both qualifying and the race, but especially in qualifying. Nothing really changed.
“It was just maybe a bit of an odd weekend last weekend where we ran softer compounds which definitely worked for us and not for Mercedes.
“I don’t know. I am of course happy where I am in the championship but it can always be better right?
“There’s still one more spot to go and we still need to find pace in our package.”
With the temperatures and track demands in Barcelona quite similar to last Sunday’s race, some believe Verstappen has a good chance of making it back-to-back wins this weekend…
“I don’t know at the moment,” he said on that possibility. “If we have a weekend like the last weekend in Silverstone then yes, but if we have the scenarios like all the other weekends, then absolutely not.
“Luckily it’s warm here, that’s always good, but we run quite hard compounds so a bit tricky to say. I know this track can be quite hard on tyres, but we just have to wait and see.”
Verstappen of course famously won his first F1 race in Spain in his first GP with Red Bull back in 2016.