Max Verstappen says it was difficult for anyone to judge how good he and Carlos Sainz were when they only had each other as team-mates.
The two rookies were paired at Toro Rosso last season and for the first four races of this campaign, before Verstappen was promoted to Red Bull as Daniil Kvyat moved back to Toro Rosso. Since the switch, both drivers have excelled and Verstappen told F1i he learned a lot from the fight with Sainz but neither had a known quantity to benchmark themselves against.
“It was a good battle I would say and then of course it is always very positive if you are the one who gets the jump to Red Bull so that shows I did the right thing there," Verstappen said.
"I think you learn a lot from it but I think in general we were both rookies so it’s difficult to really measure each other. But then once I joined this team I definitely had to up my game against Daniel [Ricciardo].
"It all went pretty smoothly, it’s not like I suddenly had to make a huge jump, you just go slowly and I was just growing into it. Especially race results are always going well and I think that’s definitely my strength.”
And Verstappen admits the atmosphere between himself and Ricciardo is better than it was within Toro Rosso alongside Sainz.
"I think in general is already a good team but then once you step up to Red Bull everything is just one step better in whatever they do, which you expect from a world championship team. That’s nothing bad against Toro Rosso because they were doing the best they could with the possibilities they had.
"In the end the atmosphere in the team is also very good, I’m enjoying it. Daniel’s a great team-mate, we have a lot of respect for each other and he’s a very friendly person as well so it’s good to have a good atmosphere between the drivers.
"Also the team, they are pushing and since I joined I think Daniel and I are pushing each other to the limit, we are pushing the team forward and I think that's very good for the whole combination."
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