Abu Dhabi GP, Max Verstappen extremely relaxed
Max Verstappen this year, after the Dutch Grand Prix on Aug. 31, his home race, was 104 points behind McLaren’s Australian Oscar Piastri, and after the one in Sao Paulo on Nov. 9, two races ago, he had 49 from McLaren’s other driver, Britain’s Lando Norris. Now, however, he is only 12 behind Lando and four ahead of Piastri.He is therefore on the verge of completing a legendary comeback and arrives at the final round of the Formula One World Drivers’ Championship season extremely relaxed, as he himself said in the press conference on the eve of the decisive three days of the season.
“I spent some time with my daughter,” Verstappen said. “I thought about some things for GT3 for next year, I also thought about some things for my sim racing team, planning for next year. Pretty simple things before I got here. I’m very relaxed, I have nothing to lose. I’m enjoying the fact that I’m here, but for me it’s not even a matter of being here-I’ve been enjoying the second half of the season, working with the team and how we’ve been able to turn around difficult moments. We went from debriefing after the race, feeling very disappointed and frustrated with the performance, to just enjoying it, smiling and having these wins again. It’s great, so I’m content with that,” Max continued.
“For me everything here is just a bonus, as is being here fighting for the title. That’s also what makes it very easy for me. We’ll just try to have a good weekend, but even then it won’t be all in my control, so I guess I’ll just try to enjoy it. Overall, I’m very proud of the season we had, how we were able to recover even in the second half. We’ll just try to have fun until the end, but to always choose one significant moment in particular or anything better than the others is always difficult,” concluded the winner of the last four world championships.
Max Verstappen with his triumph in Qatar has touched 70 Grand Prix wins in his Formula 1 career. This year he has won 7 of them, starting 7 times in pole position and setting the fastest lap in the race 3 times.
