F1, Max Verstappen ignores wake: his admission about Ferrari

A major admission of inferiority to Ferrari.

Max Verstappen, in the post qualifying press conference of the French Grand Prix, bows his head to Ferrari. And while Charles Leclerc shared the merits of pole position with Carlos Sainz, the world champion feels a little differently.

“Wanting to be honest, I don’t think that alone the slipstream that Leclerc exploited gained him a good three tenths of a second,” Verstappen explained in fact, referring to the gap between him and Ferrari’s Monegasque.

So the Red Bull Dutchman said he was pleased with the increasingly heated rivalry between him and his colleague. “Obviously without the slipstream we would have been even closer, but to see that we are always there is great. Also because with Charles we grew up together, we have been racing against each other since the karting days and we have been used to battle for many years,” he said.

Verstappen, in any case, does not want to give up yet: “Tomorrow’s race will be interesting, because at the top speed level we are very competitive. During a Grand Prix you can’t deal with certain corners like in qualifying, and the hope is that these factors will allow us to catch up with Ferrari. Then, given the heat, we will have to be very careful with tire management.”