Verstappen told the media that he wants to give his all. The title? He's not thinking about it at the moment
The Las Vegas GP represents the first match point for Max Verstappen in the race for his fourth world title. If the Dutchman can maintain a margin of two points or more over Lando Norris during the night race in Nevada, he will be mathematically certain of winning the championship. However, Verstappen is not focused on the point combinations, but rather on the knowledge that his performance in Interlagos was affected by the adverse weather conditions. Despite this, he once again demonstrated his strength: starting from 17th place due to a penalty, he managed to climb up to sixth place in just 11 laps, overtaking opponents as if the track were dry.
Click here to find out how the FantaF1 odds changed after the Brazilian GP
GP Las Vegas: “I hope I can be in the fight”
But nothing is a given, nothing is done and Verstappen knows it well. Given the technical problems of the RB20 that have complicated his season, and the superiority of other teams, the Dutchman prefers not to take victory for granted, despite Norris has already practically abandoned the fight.
Verstappen commented as follows to the microphones of the media present at the Las Vegas GP:
“Is the team throwing a title party this weekend? If they were, I don’t want to know! I just want to focus on what needs to be done and try to put in a good performance. Brazil was a very welcome win for us after a while, but this is very different again. Obviously there are three races left in the season, we are getting closer to the end and we are in a good position in the standings, but we are still missing some points. We just need to focus on that. Once we have done that we will be even closer to the goal, which is obviously to win the championship.”
The main concern, however, is the competitiveness of Ferrari, which already last year had shown on this track how competitive it was. In this regard, the world champion said:
“After the last few races we were definitely not the fastest car, so we will see what we can do here. Last year we had a fun race, but Ferrari were already very fast. This track seems to suit their car but I hope we can be in that fight this weekend to try to win again.”
The Maranello team, however, seems to be one of the teams that will be most affected by the new technical directive. We will have the first signs of this in free practice. Another unknown, this time for all the teams, will be getting the tires up to temperature given the cold climate in Nevada.
Max therefore looks with confidence to this last trio of races:
“I can’t wait to get out there. There are three races to go, we’re getting close to the end of the season and the championship is looking good, but we still have a lot of points to get, so we’ll just focus on that. Once we do that, we’ll get closer to the final result. Obviously, the goal is to win the championship.”
The Wittich Case
Verstappen was then asked about the FIA's controversial decision to remove Niels Wittich as Race Director. Initially presented as voluntary resignation, his dismissal surprised many pilots as stated in press conference. Max commented with his usual frankness:
"I read the news and it didn't change my day. It doesn't matter whether you are for or against certain things. It's still a bit strange to have to deal with a different race director: if you normally wanted to change a race director, maybe you would do it after the season and you would have some time for him to get used to the situation. Also, there would be pre-season tests to get into the role better. But let's see how it goes: they have decided and we have to accept it.".
Max Verstappen said the following sentence to the media microphones: “Most of the time you make your own luck“. So the Dutchman looks at his past, all he has achieved, at his present and, why not?!, to its future. And that's what everyone should look at.
