Max Verstappen is fighting with all his might to secure his first F1 world title, but the Red Bull charger says that if he loses the fight against arch-rival Lewis Hamilton this year, the defeat will have little impact on his life.
Ahead of this weekend's Turkish Grand Prix and with seven rounds to go, Verstappen trails Hamilton by just two points in the Drivers' standings.
The Dutchman owes part of the small deficit to his outstanding performance last time out in Sochi where he charged from the back of the grid following an engine change to second place, conceding just a handful of points to his Mercedes rival.
As the season enters a crucial stage, the intensity of the fight between F1's two protagonists will only grow. And yet Verstappen appears to shrug off the expanding pressure.
"I always do my best and I know that the team is also doing the best they can," explained the Red Bull charger in Istanbul on Thursday.
"And if that’s going to be, at the end of the year, first, of course that’s an amazing achievement and that’s what we work for, right?"
"But even if we would finish second, I think we would still have a great season and at the end of the day it’s not really going to change my life
"I enjoy what I’m doing and that’s also very important. For me there is not much to worry about, really."
Verstappen clarified that he is "fully committed" to winning the championship and isn't tempted to settle for less.
In other words, he'll keep his head down and have a look where he stands at the checkered flag in Abu Dhabi.
"You shouldn’t really stress it," he added. "I know that my team does the best they can, right? And they expect that from me, and I always try to get the best out of that.
"We are fully committed to try and make this a success together. But you cannot force things.
"You just have to work well and work hard together, and then we will find out at the end of the season where that will put us, is that first, is that second? We don’t know."
The battle is tight among F1's pair of front-runners, while Mercedes enjoys a bit more of a margin over Red Bull in the Constructors' championship, as it leads its opponent by 33.5 points.
But Verstappen insists the atmosphere is "very relaxed" in the bulls' camp.
"I mean, we are very relaxed, but also very focused, and of course we want to win – the whole team wants to win – so that mentality is there," he said.
"There’s nothing new you can force, or you have to stress about, because we always want to do the best we can anyway and that’s what we’ll try to do this weekend."
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