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Max Verstappen claims he’d rather win a Grand Prix by ’20 seconds’ than getting his elbows out in wheel-to-wheel battles

Originally posted on FirstSportz | By Rishabh Negi | Last updated 5/12/24

Max Verstappen , the reigning world champion, has been competing in F1 since 2015. While he has amassed decent experience over the years, he has truly come under immense limelight during the ongoing ground-effect era.

Since 2022, Max Verstappen has won pretty much everything there is to win in the sport, and ahead of the Imola GP, he has taken the time to shed light on how he likes his victories to pan out. Last year, he produced 19 dominant victories in a campaign of 22 races.

Moreover, most of the races were won by the 26-year-old by a handsome margin. Keeping this in view, he was recently asked how he prefers his wins and as a response, he came up with a bit surprising answer!

At least 20 seconds! That’s for me… I’ve raced so much in my life in close combat. I enjoy a lot more if we can actually nail the car and are 100 percent sure that we can win by a big margin but, of course, that’s not what fans want to hear but I am honest, you know? I’m here to win and I’m here to create my own success. Max Verstappen said in an interview with Sky F1

Verstappen has made it known that he prefers dominant victories and does not prefer getting into wheel-to-wheel action. He wants to create his own legacy and wants it to be mostly filled with Grand Prix wins where he just disappears into the distance in his hallmark fashion.

Max Verstappen warned after Lando Norris’ eye-catching Miami win

While Max Verstappen has admitted that he prefers to win races by a margin of over 20 seconds, his hype train was brought to an abrupt halt at the 2024 Miami GP. The Dutchman lost out on the win to McLaren’s Lando Norris.

During the 57-lap Grand Prix, certain things took place that gave Norris the advantage. After that, the Brit was able to maintain his cool while being chased by Verstappen and seeing his exploits, the Red Bull team advisor, Helmut Marko has warnned his driver ahead of next week’s race.

The 80-year-old genuinley feels that Norris has become ‘dangerous.’

Now it is to be feared that Lando will become even more dangerous for him on the track. Because the pressure is gone now. Helmut Marko said in an interview with OE24

The McLaren F1 team has been on an upward trajectory since the second half of the 2022 season. This year they have simply picked things up from where they left at end of last year and with quite a few upgrades in the pipeline for them, Verstappen could face stiff competition from Norris and Oscar Piastri in the remaining 18 events this year!

This article first appeared on FirstSportz and was syndicated with permission.

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