Max Verstappen told the media that he and his team “did the best we could” with higher tyre degradation as he finished P2 at the Canadian GP.
Max Verstappen was able to hold onto his P2 start to the end of the race at the Canadian GP. Even though he tried to catch race winner George Russell on the opening laps, he had to back off due to his tyres.
However, watching the race, Verstappen could have caught up to Russell without the Safety Car When asked about if he could pull off this possibility, Verstappen answered,“No. Not really, to be honest. The first two stints, I was struggling a lot with the tyres. Just too much degradation again.“
Getting past the tyres
However, tyre degradation did not stop the Reigning World Champion from finishing on the podium at the Canadian GP. Red Bull made the correct calls, with the RB21 not preforming how Verstappen liked.
“So we drove quite a defensive race, to be honest, because basically two times, Kimi was about to overtake me, and we boxed. So that worked out quite well for me. We did a very aggressive strategy. I think the last pit stop, I was a bit worried if I was going to make it to the end competitively because on the hard tyre in the second stint, I was already struggling as well. So I think just a lighter fuel load helped a bit.”
The Mercedes driver had a car suited to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, but Verstappen did the best he could to maintain the Mercedes sandwich with himself at the Canadian GP.
“But the gap wasn’t that big towards George, and I never really felt like I had the pace to do anything. It was more about just looking in the mirror, trying to maintain that gap, try to look after my tyres to not overstress them. It was not the easiest race, but I think as a team we managed it well. I think we definitely optimised everything we could because, honestly, throughout the whole race, I never really felt like I was actually holding on to second. So, yeah, we did a good job. I mean, the whole weekend, I think the car was reasonable. Strategy-wise, we did the best we could.”
Being ahead of the McLarens
The Dutchman noted that he will race at tracks where his Red Bull car is more suited but hoes he does not “start every weekend like this”. With the current dominate team, McLaren, behind the 27-year-old, he knows soon they would be ahead again after the Canadian GP.
“Well, I hope that we can start every weekend like this in terms of how I feel with the car, but overall, we do need more performance to be quick everywhere. I also think that this weekend was a bit, I won’t say an off weekend, but McLaren wasn’t as strong as normal. And, of course, we benefited a little bit. But if we go to all the other tracks now coming up, we definitely need more performance to even be close to them. This has been a good weekend for us, but we need a lot more to be able to fight with them for the whole season.”
