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Jos Verstappen compared the first impressions of Max Verstappen’s car to the Mercedes package from the pre-season test in Bahrain, in an interview with David Coulthard. The former F1 driver felt that Red Bull Racing had a more competitive package and watching Mercedes struggle made him anticipate a good season ahead for his son and the Milton Keynes-based outfit.
Describing Mercedes' struggles in pre-season testing, Max Verstappen’s father said:
“I must say immediately and what I always do is I want to hear it from him (Max). The first impression is so important, and when he did the first runs and came out, I could see it, and also what he said and also the lap times showed that we had a competitive car. Mercedes was struggling with their rear, at that moment already I thought that maybe we are in for a very good season. And it was like that.”
According to the current world champion's father, the pre-season test did give an analogy of the season ahead after witnessing the performance of both Mercedes and Red Bull F1 teams’ cars. The senior Verstappen felt that the most important feedback about the car was that from his son, which gave him the confidence to believe the championship was a realistic target.
Max Verstappen reveals he stayed neutral while handling the press opinions
According to the newly crowned world champion, it was very important to stay neutral while handling positive and negative press in an intense title battle, and his approach to shrugging off pressure throughout the season. Max Verstappen revealed staying neutral was key to coping with the press.
Describing his approach to facing the press this season, Verstappen said:
“That's why I always tried to stay very neutral. When people are positive, of course it's nice to hear. I don’t really take a lot out of it. And also when people are negative, when you’re always very leveled then nothing can really disturb you, specially I tried this year and it was very important. Of course you have the biases and the two sides in general, so you stay very neutral and nothing can really affect you.”
With his championship win this season, Max Verstappen has become the first non-Mercedes driver to do so in the V6 turbo hybrid era that Mercedes has dominated since 2014.
