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Max Verstappen doesn't think Red Bull would have the car capable of fighting competitively on every track this season and hence boost his title hopes. The driver shocked everyone when he snatched pole position from both McLaren drivers in the F1 Japanese GP on Saturday. On Sunday, the driver held on to the lead at the start of the race.
From that point onwards, it was all about maintaining a decent advantage over Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri and not letting them get close to the DRS range of 1 second. When both Verstappen and his rival pitted for fresh tires on the same lap, all that the Dutch driver had to do from that point onwards was keep him at an arm's length.
The driver duly did so and hence secured the race win. As a result of the win, Verstappen is now only one point behind Norris in the championship standings and is right in the mix.
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With that being said, Max Verstappen still doesn't think that Red Bull is in a position to battle McLaren and Norris at every track. When questioned during the FIA press conference if he felt confident of challenging the duo from now on, the driver replied negatively as he said:
"I don't think so, to be honest. It was very difficult to overtake here. Bahrain is a completely different circuit and very hard on the tyres. The rubber also overheats. We still have work to do, but we can be there if we do everything perfectly."
"From our side, we want to be better than we sometimes participate. We keep working hard and see where we will be in Bahrain. Hopefully we keep improving the car with the balance in the corners and then more speed will come out," Max Verstappen added.
Verstappen might have secured the win in Japan, but the driver was quite blunt when he talked about the fact that Red Bull's limitations had not been resolved yet.
Max Verstappen admits Red Bull's limitations have not been solved yet
Talking about how the team is still working on making improvements, Max Verstappen said during the FIA press conference:
"I think we know our limitations, so we are fighting as hard as we can against them. But yes, our problems are still not solved. Hopefully it will happen soon, but I can't give a timeline. It's just about trying to find the limit, because it is very sensitive at the moment."
Verstappen is now within a point of Lando Norris and was able to close the gap on the driver to just one point. The driver has been executing perfect weekends for some time now, and this race was just another example of how you cannot afford to make mistakes when the Dutch driver is who you're competing against.
