F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Verstappen riding 'positive pressure' into Monaco

Man of the moment Max Verstappen seems to be taking his record-breaking success in Barcelona in his stride, appearing calm and assured in the Formula One drivers' press conference in Monaco ahead of this weekend's race.

"It was pretty crazy in Holland. [To be] the first Dutch winner is always very special. I can call myself the youngest and the oldest - something I'm the oldest in!" he said of his victory in Spain in his first outing with Red Bull, which made him the youngest-ever Grand Prix race winner in history.

"Luckily I didn't go out too much in Holland in the streets, I was just enjoying my time with family and friends.

"I think every driver has pressure but I turn it into positive pressure," he continued. "As long as you're enjoying it and you feel happy then I think that's the most important to have success and at the end I always try to do my best and I think that takes a lot of pressure away as well."

Verstappen added that he didn't have any special way of coping with the pressure of the race or of his new found global fame, or with the expectations now heaped upon his shoulders over what he might be able to achieve during the rest of the season.

"To be honest I didn't expect that, so I didn't do any special preparation. I just put my helmet on and jumped in the car and suddenly I was leading the race and from there on you just try to do the best thing you can from the experiences you had from before.

"Yeah, I won the race. We'll see what happens now in the next few races. I just stay calm, try and so the best I can, and from there on see what position that is. Of course Mercedes is still very strong so it will be difficult to beat them at the moment but we'll do our best.

"I'm going to approach [Monaco] in the same was I did in Barcelona," he added. "We'll try to find a really good set-up in the car and try to get very comfortable on this track because that's in the end what's important to go fast, and we'll see where it ends up."

Chris Medland's 2016 Monaco Grand Prix preview

Jacques Villeneuve - Race of my life

Technical analysis: Barcelona

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Max Verstappen, Red Bull

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.