"We definitely need to improve" - Max Verstappen says it's up to Red Bull to 'close that gap' after seeing Ferrari's performance at the 2022 F1 Spanish GP

Max Verstappen took his third race win of the 2022 season for Red Bull this weekend at the Spanish Grand Prix, despite struggling with significant DRS issues throughout the race. With this win, he has officially taken the lead in the World Drivers' Championship standings.

In the post-race press conference, the Dutchman admitted that his team has a lot of work to do to truly close the gap to Ferrari in terms of performance. Claiming that Red Bull needs to improve its car to fight for a second world championship title, he said:

“It’s a bit too early to say about the full race. Of course, tyre deg[radation], because he [Ferrari's Charles Leclerc] did pull away from me a little bit at the time, but there were races also before where this has happened a bit. I mean, I’m not saying that I’m not looking at it, for sure they had a really strong weekend and we definitely need to improve. We need to be better over one-lap performance, especially.”

Egging his team on to close the gap to Ferrari, he said:

“But I think we were so early on in the race that it was a bit difficult to tell how big the margin was exactly. Because I don’t even know what lap I went off but it was very early on and then we never really had a reference anymore, right. We always have to improve, but for sure, after this weekend, it shows that with all the upgrades they brought I think they definitely took a step forward. So now it’s up to us, of course to try and close that gap down again.”

With a 1-2 finish for Red Bull in Barcelona and only one Ferrari making it to the points at the Spanish Grand Prix, the Milton Keynes-based team now hold a 26-point advantage against the Prancing Horse.

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Sergio Perez remains diplomatic regarding Red Bull's team order calls at the Spanish GP

Sergio Perez was comfortably leading the Spanish Grand Prix in the second half of the race but gave up the win to his teammate after being ordered to do so by Red Bull. The 32-year-old described the decision as "unfair" during the race, but remained diplomatic regarding the matter once the race had ended.

In a post-media interaction, the Mexican certainly did not seem thrilled to have let his team-mate by but was happy with the team's result regardless. He said:

“I think it was close. But at the end it is a great team result. I’m happy for that. We were on different tyre strategies at the time. I let Max by in the beginning, then I thought at the time I could go by and not lose crucial seconds to make my strategy work. But anyway, it’s a good team result.”

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, however, insisted that it was a purely strategic decision to avoid any DNFs, given Verstappen's tire advantage.