Max Verstappen says Red Bull must ensure their cars are reliable as the fight for the world championship is likely to be between him and his team mate.
Red Bull’s drivers have finished first and second in the opening two races. Verstappen won the first round in Bahrain but Sergio Perez triumphed in yesterday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Verstappen’s victory hopes were hit when he suffered a driveshaft failure in qualifying on Saturday, which left him 15th on the grid. Although his Red Bull was quick enough for him to recover to second place, Verstappen said the team must improve its reliability to ensure both drivers have an equal chance in the championship.
“It’s not only about the pace of the car,” said the reigning world champion. “We need to make sure we are reliable without any issues.
“My first weekend was not very clean because of the big balance shift from testing to the race weekend and some other things which are going on in the background. Now again, after three positive practice sessions, of course I have an issue in qualifying.
“Of course I recovered to second which is good and in general the whole feeling in the team, everyone is happy. But personally, I’m not happy, because I’m not here to be second.
“Especially when you are working very hard back at the factory to make sure that you arrive here in a good state, and basically making sure that everything is spot on, and then you have to do a recovery race. Which I like, I don’t mind doing it, but when you’re fighting for a championship and especially when it looks like it’s just between two cars, we have to make sure that also the two cars are reliable.”
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While Perez took pole position and won the race, Verstappen doubts he could have beaten his team mate under the circumstances. “Realistically with or without the Safety Car I think P2 was the highest possible.”
Verstappen told his team he was concerned about a potential driveshaft failure as he pursued Perez in the closing stages of yesterday’s race.
“At one point I picked up again these vibrations on the driveshaft, on the rear. The team couldn’t see anything, but I’m fairly sure there was something odd going on with the balance since the vibration started to kick in.
“I did the calculations and I wouldn’t have been able to close that gap to the end with only 10 laps left. So, at…
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