The star driver Max Verstappen has assessed his chances of conquering his fifth Formula 1 world title this year, considering them at 50/50.
Currently, Verstappen is in third position in the drivers’ championship, 63 points behind the leader, with six races remaining on the calendar.
Before this weekend’s United States Grand Prix in Austin, Verstappen commented on his chances:
It’s 50/50. Yes, you either win it or you don’t win it. I don’t really think about it.
Max Verstappen
The driver added: “We go race by race, you know, so we’ll try to give our best here and then we’ll move on and see what we get.”Verstappen has established himself as a title contender after the summer break, thanks to an improvement in his performance that allowed him to reduce the points gap with the McLaren drivers in the championship. So far, he has nine podiums and four victories, including consecutive wins in Monza and Baku.
The 28-year-old Dutch driver has outperformed McLaren’s Lando Norris in the last four races, including Norris’s retirement at the Dutch Grand Prix due to an oil leak.
Although McLaren secured the constructors’ championship at the Singapore Grand Prix, the team still sees Verstappen as a threat in the drivers’ championship, although the Red Bull driver has refused to focus on his possibilities.
“Well, I don’t really think about it much, it’s as simple as that,” Verstappen said. “I come to the race weekend, I try to do everything I can in the car. It doesn’t matter if I’m behind or ahead. Naturally, of course, it’s better to be ahead because it means you’re leading the championship.”
“But I see every opportunity, every race weekend, the opportunity to try to win, if possible. If we don’t, we don’t, life goes on. It’s really not that dramatic for me. It doesn’t pressure me. I guess it helps if you’ve already won.”
“So I think also as a team we try to understand the car a little bit more, we try to see what we can learn a little bit more also from what’s coming next year from the car. Because it’s not like you start completely from scratch next year. And that’s all.”
