FILE PHOTO: Formula One F1 – Dutch Grand Prix – Circuit Zandvoort, Zandvoort, Netherlands – September 4, 2022 Max Verstappen of Red Bull celebrates on the podium with the trophy after winning the Dutch Grand Prix REUTERS/Yves Herman
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has turned down his favorite offer for a third consecutive Formula 1 championship and said on Friday the sport needs a closer battle than last year even if He intends to be better than ever.
Verstappen won 15 out of 22 races in a 2022 season, it was his team’s best season with Mexican teammate Sergio Perez adding two goals to the roster.
Rivals and runner-up Ferrari have won four races and Mercedes once dominated, finishing third overall, just one race.
“As a driver, you always try to look at yourself, see what you can do better, and you try to come back stronger every year even though it is a difficult task sometimes,” he said. he told reporters after the team’s premiere in New York.
Asked how he would like Mercedes to get back into the fray, with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton unable to win a race in a single season for the first time in his career, Verstappen replied:
“I think for the sake of the sport, you always want the teams to be super close. But I think it was pretty close last year.
“I think as a team we also actually do a lot of things better than the other teams and that’s why I guess the points gap is also huge. I never really felt, other than two or three races, that we completely dominated the whole weekend.
“But for sports, everyone wants to have a title match with multiple teams participating.”
Ferrari has changed the team boss since the end of last season with Mattia Binotto being replaced by Fred Vasseurwhile Mercedes has lost its chief strategy officer James Vowles to Williams as its new principal.
“I never really thought about being the most popular because you have to keep working, you have to keep improving because otherwise they’ll catch up and overtake you,” Verstappen said.
“About people leaving other teams, I don’t know. It is difficult for outsiders to say whether it is good or bad, interrupting their work?
“If newcomers come in, it always takes a bit of time to settle in… but I think you can still get a lot of performance out of the box.”
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