Max Verstappen has made it clear he has no intention of simply “sitting there and accepting” Red Bull’s pace disadvantage to McLaren during Formula 1’s Japanese Grand Prix.
Verstappen snapped a 15-race streak without a pole position by producing a stunning lap at Suzuka, edging out the McLaren pair who had looked dominant all weekend.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri topped all three practice sessions as well as Q1 and Q2, positioning McLaren as the team to beat heading into the race.
Despite his pole position, Verstappen cautioned that Red Bull’s struggles with the RB21 remain unresolved and acknowledged that McLaren are still the likely favourites for race day.
Heading into the 53-lap race, the three-time Japanese Grand Prix winner knows that a win would help him close his eight-point deficit to Norris in the standings.
While focused on boosting his title chances, Verstappen made it clear he’s ready to fight hard to hold off the McLarens.
When asked how tough it would be to stay ahead of them, he told reporters, including Motorsport Week:
“It will be very hard, but that’s fine. I’ll try to do my best.”
“So far this season we have not been able to fight them. But it’s not like we just sit there and accept it.
“We try to do the very best and we’ll give it a good fight tomorrow if we can.
“But at the end of the day, it’s a very long championship and you need to keep on scoring points whenever you can in the best way possible.
“At least we’re starting from the front – then we’ll see where we go.”
Verstappen unsure about Red Bull’s race pace
Verstappen admitted that Red Bull’s race pace is still uncertain, as a shortened FP2 session prevented teams from gathering valuable long-run data.
“We did what we could. Now I don’t know,” Verstappen said regarding Red Bull’s homework going into the race.
“First, we also have to wait and see what weather we’ll get.
“And from then onwards, I think it’s very important to just focus on ourselves, do the best we can, execute the race, of course, in the best way possible.
“But I don’t know how fast we will be.”
