Verstappen on ... his rookie season
We sat down and did an interview during testing where you were full of confidence; what do you think has gone well for you this season so far?
“Well the most important thing is going very well and that’s the racing, where you score the points. So I’m very happy about that and in the end I think that’s also what needs to be the best. You can be a qualifying superhero but then you need to score the points in the race. I think so far that has been very positive. I’m still learning in all the aspects but also qualifying lately is going well. Obviously the last two I didn’t do, it’s a bit of a shame but it happens like that.
“It’s a rookie season, I’m very happy with how everything is going. Especially Hungary and Spa - I was very happy about Spa as well. I think the whole weekend we showed very good performance with the package we had there, some of the overtaking I really enjoyed there. Also Monza as well, a lot of problems in practice and then of course in qualifying, but in the race starting from last with a drive-through, to come back and overtake people. For me the most important thing was to be very consistent in my lap times and I think the team was very happy for that and for me that’s also very important.
“Those races are there to learn and not give up because if you start from last I think a lot of people sometimes give up and then it will be a shit race. But in the end I think we did a very good race, we were almost in the points and even without the drive-through I would have scored points, so I think that’s very positive.”
There has been many positives this year, but do you feel there have been many negatives? Anything that hasn’t gone quite as well as you’d hoped?
“Well lately not anymore. In the beginning of the season you are always struggling a bit with some bits. At the beginning it was a bit of qualifying but that’s already going much, much better. I knew that was coming it just needed a bit more time. After one season of F3 where the tyres are not too difficult to understand, I have to learn. All the guys around me have five or six years of car racing experience and that makes it a bit more difficult for me. But that’s good for me because I was always in a very hard and tough learning school in all the categories I did, even in go-karting. So for me that’s fine, it gives me extra motivation and I have to push very hard for that which is what I like; it shouldn’t go too easy.
“For the moment I’m very happy with how everything is going because also in practice you know how to build it up, you take your margins everywhere and you get much more experience. I think in the end this will make the difference. That’s what I didn’t have in the beginning of the season when you were just finding a bit how to build up a weekend and I think that’s going much better.”
