Max Verstappen says he is taking the rest of the 2024 Formula 1 season from weekend to weekend and not wasting energy on thinking too much about the big picture of the title battle.
Verstappen also rated his chances of winning as “50-50” heading into the final run of six races.
The Dutchman currently holds a lead of 52 points over rival Lando Norris, with the gap having shrunk over recent races.
After a frustrating Italian GP Verstappen said it was “not realistic” to win the championship if the RB20 didn’t improve.
However the team has built on lessons learned that weekend, and those are reflected in the Austin update package.
“It’s 50-50, yes or no,” he said when asked about his title chances. “I don’t know. I mean, there’s a lot that can go well or can go wrong, in the six races, plus sprint races as well.
“So nothing is guaranteed from both sides. We’ll see. I prefer not really to think ahead too much, and really live from weekend to weekend.”
Asked if that really was his assessment of his chances he said: “It just because you say you win it or not, which is 50-50! So that’s why. I mean, I don’t really like to think about it too much.
“Like I said, I just live from race weekend to race weekend, because otherwise you’re just putting unnecessary thoughts in your head, which also costs energy, which I don’t want to waste. I’m thinking too much about racing.”
Verstappen also rejected the suggestion that he was under pressure over the last six races.
“You could say yes, but I’m not,” he said. “Because I know that when I jump in the car, I try to do the best I can. When the car is capable of good results, I’ll deliver the results.
“And yeah, when it’s not, then it will be a bit more difficult. Of course, naturally, I like to win races and championships. But yeah, if it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t, it’s how life is.”
Verstappen said he hasn’t run the update package in the Milton Keynes simulator, an indication perhaps of how recently it was signed off and sent into production.
“I actually didn’t try it,” he said. “So let’s see. We don’t have a lot of time to really test everything, but we’ll see how it goes. To be honest I don’t know at the moment what it will give.
“For sure, we learned a lot from Monza, and this definitely is from the learnings of Monza.”
Asked if it could close the gap to McLaren he said: “If you look at the pace in Singapore, the difference, for sure not. But every track is different.
“We know that Singapore is not our strongest track anyway I don’t expect that it’s going to be completely different, and we are going to be the dominating car.
“We have our limitations a bit with this car already the whole year. Now we’re trying to make it better. But, yeah, don’t expect it to completely swing.”
He admitted that it’s difficult to introduce an update on a sprint weekend with only FP1 in which to test it.
“You rely more on data then, because in one session, it’s very hard,” he said. “Because you just start with the car, right? That’s the package, and you try to balance it, try to find the best setup on it.
“And then you rely, of course, on the data. Also from the engineers, if they’re happy with the upgrade or not.”
