Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing will be focused on just one goal when the delayed 2020 season kicks off in Austria next month: the F1 world championship title!
In the past few years, the Milton Keynes-based outfit has typically endured a slow start to its campaigns before it built up strength and fought for race wins at the start of the summer.
But the team's performance in pre-season testing at Barcelona last winter suggested that it would hit the ground running in Australia.
Alas, the coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on the 2020 F1 season, with the sport's chiefs forced to rebuild a new schedule that will kick off at the Red Bull Ring on July 5. And Verstappen is raring to go.
"I’m feeling good and I’m feeling ready. You would hope so after such a long break, but it’s really exciting to get started again," he told F1 veteran David Coulthard in an interview for Dutch website Carnext.com.
"As a team, our expectations are to win. We want to go for the championship, that’s our only goal.
"Everybody is very motivated, so I’m looking forward to get started and see where we are."
Red Bull and Verstappen's win in Austria last year following an epic battle with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc bodes well for the pair's prospects at Spielberg where the mighty Mercedes squad has struggled in the past.
And a double-dose of an all-conquering Max Verstappen in Austria would perhaps set up the 22-year-old to become the sport's youngest F1 world champion.
"In the end it’s going to be a nice moment when it happens," he said recently.
"Of course I want to win every year, that hasn’t worked out yet. I learned a lot last year, we worked together even better in pre-season testing in Barcelona. We are definitely extremely motivated."
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