“I’m Happy With That” – Why Max Verstappen Doesn’t Care About Beating Bottas in the Championship

A string of poor performances from Valtteri Bottas has revived the fight for P2 in the Championship table. Although Max Verstappen has a shot at splitting the two Mercedes, he opened up that his focus is more on getting good results.

According to Motorsport, Max spoke about his thoughts on taking his fight to Bottas over the upcoming race weekends.

“It doesn’t really matter, a second or third,” he said. “I just want to have a good result.

“If it means that at the end you are third in the championship, but you had a few positive races to finish the season, I’m happy with that.”

Despite Max’s claims that he doesn’t care about beating Bottas, the Finn will still be cautious, considering his recent run of form. However, from Max’s perspective, he will definitely have lost his hopes at battling it out with the Mercedes. Red Bull never looked like they could beat the German-based outfit through this season.

“First race I think was quite clear that we were too far off,” Max said. “And why? I mean, that I don’t know. Because otherwise, we would have changed already if we knew why.”

It has been a double blow for Red Bull this season. Apart from the front runners, Mercedes, pulling away even further, the midfield teams like Racing Point and Renault, too, have closed in from behind.

Max Verstappen confident Red Bull’s recent updates will be helpful in Bahrain

The Dutchman sounded quite assured that his team’s updates which were introduced in Turkey will be helpful at the upcoming Bahrain Grand Prix. However, he added that there is a lot of learning to do.

“I mean, it’s always difficult to say, because of the conditions, but I tested a few new parts, and they were definitely positive,” he said.

“So I’m just looking forward to come here to Bahrain, where of course we have a bit more information already with these cars and the last few years. So I just want to see how it works here. But I’m confident that it can be good.”

Max had a rather disappointing race at the Turkish Grand Prix, as he limped home in P6. The Dutchman suffered some spins through the race. However, it wasn’t just Max.

Both the Red Bull drivers had an unpleasant outing, despite looking like they could actually win the race at one point. However, it never turned out that way for them.

Hence, coming to this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, Max will be hoping to retrieve the lost points and inch closer to Bottas in the fight for P2. Will everything fall in place for the Red Bull driver in Bahrain? Only time will tell.