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Max Verstappen is not ruling out taking a shot at the world championship in 2018. Many are predicting a revival of the Mercedes-Ferrari duel this year, but Red Bull is notably bullish. "We are ready for 2018," Dr Helmut Marko told Sport Bild.
"In past years we had technical problems at the beginning of the season, but now everything is going according to plan. I am sure that we will be competitive from the first test and will continue the good series that we had in the last third of 2017," he added. Dutch driver Verstappen agrees: "I want the title as fast as possible."
One potential problem, however, could be the Renault engine, which ended 2018 as the third best in F1 and one of the least reliable. But Verstappen said: "Red Bull can be champion with a slightly weaker engine, which they have already shown four times." (GMM)
Grand Prix of Belgium
C. Sainz jr
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Replies (6)
Login to replyboudy
Posts: 1,168
... like any driver on the grid ...
blade
Posts: 341
too early for him still, needs two more years experience, can he cope with leading something and the constant questions/pressure - give him a couple more years...I think he will be champ.
DutchTreath
Posts: 5,058
I really wonder why people keep saying that he need more years experience? Max have proven that he can deal whit any pressure. Give him a good car so that he can prove your wrong.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
With a Renault engine and only 3 allowed allocations? I dont see it.
Pauli
Posts: 140
Problem is more like Ferrari and Mercedes being too reliable even tough they push performance hard to compete each others.
About 20 years ago engines still failed regularly causing surprise results often. Event to the point that sometimes underdog won because of better reliable providing enough lucky wins. That made it feel like competition could have been closer than now even tough actual performance differences were equal or slightly larger.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Exactly. Even if Renault were to take a decent leap this year, the regulations will still punish them. And whats worse is that with the decreased allocations, the amount of opportunities teams have to take upgrades has decreased.