Red Bull’s Max Verstappen Challenges Hamilton

Published 11/05/2017, 2:45 PM EST

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Red Bull’s Max Verstappen raced to a dominant victory in Mexico last Sunday. He beat Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas by almost 20 seconds. The win was the Dutchman’s third in Formula 1 with many predicting he will be a future World Champion. This included newly crowned world champion Lewis Hamilton.

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“There is always someone there waiting to take my position,” said the Mercedes driver in the wake of his championship success. “I’ve got Max sitting there waiting to take it.

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“I’ve got to raise the game another level in order to stay ahead of him and that motivates me.” Singled out by Hamilton, Verstappen agrees that the four-time World Champion will have to up his game next season. He said “Well, he has to. Absolutely. That’s nothing bad against Lewis, but when you win three, four World titles, your sharpness kind of disappears. So I think at one point if you have a real challenge again from someone, you have to raise your game. Because you’re not really used to fighting it out every single race for victories or podiums, which I’ve been doing for the last three years.

What Does Red Bull’s Max Verstappen say?

Verstappen admitted that he has never been in his position. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was full of praise for Britain’s most successful F1 racer. But he says the cars that Mercedes have designed have helped him to his four times.

The Dutchman said “I mean, a lot about it is the whole package. Of course, he has been in the best car for three years now, so that helps a lot. That doesn’t take anything away from Lewis, because he’s a very talented driver. He’s naturally gifted. That’s the difference compared to his team-mates, for example, that’s why he’s winning the championships. He’s better than everyone around him. Hopefully, next year we will have at least a similar package so I can take up the challenge, but we have to wait and see.”

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Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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