Max Verstappen on Thursday returned to the scene of his maiden Formula One victory and sought to play down talk of Red Bull becoming the first team to win every race in a season.
The Dutchman claimed his first win as a teenager on his Red Bull debut in the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, after the two championship-leading Mercedes drivers Nico Hamilton and Lewis Hamilton collided on the opening lap.
The defending double world champion leads this year’s title race by 39 points from team-mate Segio Perez, with Red Bull dominating. Verstappen has won four of six races so far, with Perez winning the other two.
Their imperious consistency has raised the prospect of a unique sweep, despite Perez’s lapse in Monaco last weekend when he crashed in qualifying, started from the back of the grid and failed to score a point.
Speaking to reporters at a pre-race news conference at the Circuit de Catalunya, Verstappen was asked about that race, his team-mate’s mishap and its impact on the title battle.
“I think it’s mainly just the team, of course, as they want to score more points, but that’s Monaco — it can bite you,” he said. “I’ve been in that position myself, but now, from my point of view, it doesn’t really change anything.
“I know it’s a very long championship and you need to be very consistent. You can barely afford mistakes, especially when it’s one team, one opponent, really.
“And at the moment, it looks like ‘best case you win’ and ‘worst case you’re second’ so you can’t really lose too many points like that.
He said he plans to “keep grinding every single weekend.”
“It doesn’t really change anything for me. It’s not like I came out of Monaco relieved, or whatever.
“I’m planning to gain seven points every single weekend.”
Asked if Red Bull can win every race – something that’s never been done – he said it was possible, but unlikely.
“How it looks like, at the moment, I think we can, but that’s very unlikely to happen. There are always things that go wrong, you have a retirement or whatever.
“But, purely on pace, I think at the moment it looks like… But we’ll always get to tracks where maybe it doesn’t work out exactly, or whatever, bad luck in qualifying, you make your own mistakes…”
Verstappen also played down comments made by Red Bull’s consultant race advisor Helmut Marko suggesting that the team were due to introduce major upgrades to their car in Spain.
“I think Helmut got a bit excited!” he said. “I don’t know, but I think we’ll just be doing our normal programme and nothing crazy.”
He added that the revised circuit would suit the Red Bull car.
“But of course, we need to find a good balance and then, I think we can have a good weekend.”
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