Verstappen eyes 'lots of opportunities to fight' in China

On the face of it, it's been a strong start to the season for Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

The 21-year-old Dutch driver was on the podium in Melbourne, and narrowly missed out on another in Bahrain when a late safety car prevented him from overhauling the ailing Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

But that masks a more sombre state of affairs for Red Bull, with problems for Ferrari in Australia hiding the fact that Red Bull has fallen off the pace of its main rivals over the winter and now has considerable ground to recover.

"We scored some good points and maximised the result in Bahrain, but we still have a lot of things to learn about the car," acknowledged Verstappen this week.

• Mercedes keeping tabs on Verstappen… just in case

"To finish fourth was not too bad as we struggled with pace and rear grip, especially with the high winds.

"I was sliding around a lot so it was not easy and I just had to manage it, but I don’t think we could have done a lot differently. I drove to the limit of the car."

But Red Bull will need to dig a lot deeper still if Verstappen is to be a true title contender this season. "We’ve been busy back at the factory and hopefully we can close the gap in China," he pledged.

Shanghai has been a successful hunting ground for Red Bull in the past, with Sebastian Vettel picking up the team's first ever Grand Prix victory here in 2009.

Last year provided the team with more positive memories, with Daniel Ricciardo crossing the line to pick up the honours. Now it's up to Verstappen to pick up the banner and carry the squad to success again.

"The Chinese Grand Prix is always a good one for racing, because the track gives you a lot of opportunities for overtaking.

"I’m looking forward to hopefully having an exciting race," he added.

"The first sector is really nice because you can take a lot of different lines through the long right-hander so it can be quite interesting during the race in terms of trying to stay out of the dirty air.

"The track can also be quite hard on the left front tyre so in the race you’re always looking at how you can use the least amount of energy in that corner.

"Overall, Shanghai provides you with a lot of opportunities to fight and set up overtakes like for example in turn six, where you’re already preparing and setting up for that in Turn 1.

"This year in Shanghai is also the tenth anniversary of the Team’s first race win so hopefully we can put on a good show - especially for the passionate fans there who always turn out."

Whoever wins Sunday's race will have a permanent place in the F1 history books, as it's the 1000th Grand Prix in the history of the sport. The first race was held at Silverstone on May 13 1950, with Nino Farina victorious for Alfa Romeo.

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter