Verstappen In Jeddah: ‘I’m Not Here To Be Second’

World Champion Max Verstappen has admitted he is ‘not happy’ with the results from the past weekend in Saudi Arabia. The Dutchman finished second on the podium after a comeback from fifteenth due to problems in qualifying. 

2-times World Champion Max Verstappen is now used to perfect weekends. However, the Saudi Arabia GP in Jeddah was far from ideal: a driveshaft failure during qualifying forced the Dutchman to start the race from 15th on the grid and finished second behind his teammate Sergio Perez, who started on pole.

After the race then, Verstappen discussed the weekend, as reported by Autosport: ‘We need to make sure we are reliable without any issues. After three positive practice sessions where then of course I had an issue in qualifying, I recovered second, which is good.’

Yet, Verstappen, whose arrival in Jeddah at the start of the week was delayed due to health problems, demanded more from his team, especially regarding reliability:

‘In general, the whole feeling in the team is that everyone is happy, but personally I’m not happy because I’m not here to be second, especially when you are working very hard also back at the factory to make sure that you arrive here in a good state and making sure that everything is spot on.

‘Then you have to do a recovery race which I like, I mean, I don’t mind doing it, but it’s when you’re fighting for a championship and when it looks like it’s just between two cars, we have to make sure that also the two cars are reliable.’

Regardless, Verstappen, thanks to the fastest lap, maintains the lead in the Drivers’ Championship ahead of teammate Sergio Perez, who will have the possibility to attempt to overtake the Dutchman in the standings during the next Australian Grand Prix (31st March – 2nd April) as the 2023 season looks set to be an internal battle between the Bulls.

Headline Image: Red Bull Content Pool