Max Verstappen has performed down his and Pink Bull’s return to the rostrum eventually weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, saying the group “want to remain reasonable” because the F1 paddock rolls on to Monza.
Verstappen’s drive to second place at Zandvoort ended a run of 4 weekends and not using a Grand Prix rostrum end – his success in that interval being restricted to victory within the Spa-Francorchamps Dash.
Whereas there have been some positives for Pink Bull to take from the occasion, Verstappen made clear throughout Thursday’s media duties in Italy that loads of work lies forward if they’re to problem for total honours once more.
Requested what might be anticipated from Pink Bull’s bundle on the Temple of Velocity, a low-downforce observe that differs tremendously to Zandvoort’s high-downforce necessities, Verstappen replied: “Good query. I don’t even know myself.
“It was good to be on the rostrum in Zandvoort. In fact we have to keep reasonable. I feel the tempo within the race wasn’t something significantly robust, so there’s nonetheless a number of issues that we have to perceive a bit higher, why within the race it didn’t actually go to plan.
“However this can be a utterly completely different observe, low-downforce, utterly completely different corners as nicely. I suppose we’ll discover out tomorrow [in practice]. Hopefully we will begin a bit in a superb place and simply go from there.”
Zandvoort additionally introduced one other instance of Pink Bull making vital in a single day progress between the primary and second days of a race weekend – the RB21 and its predecessor proving troublesome to dial in during the last two seasons.
Verstappen said after Friday apply for his dwelling occasion that it could be “hard to be in the top five”, solely to qualify third behind the McLarens and be their closest challenger within the Grand Prix – transferring into second when Lando Norris retired late on.
On whether or not the necessity for such day-to-day beneficial properties might be resolved, he mentioned: “Yeah, we attempt. It’s not that we do it on objective, however sadly this automobile is usually a bit obscure.
“I simply hope that this weekend might be a bit extra easy, however I can not assure you that proper now. Final yr right here was very robust for us, the automobile was actually not performing the place we needed it to be. I simply hope the whole lot is a little more balanced this weekend.”
Verstappen’s feedback check with a particularly painful Monza weekend for Pink Bull 12 months in the past, when he after which group mate Sergio Perez have been three quarters of a second off the tempo in Qualifying and will solely place sixth and eighth respectively on race day.
