"I think we were a lot more competitive"- Max Verstappen feels high 'straight-line speed' proved to be 'very beneficial' in winning 2022 F1 French GP

Max Verstappen secured his seventh race win of the 2022 season this weekend at the French Grand Prix. He admitted that in terms of straight-line speed, his Red Bull is finally on par with Ferrari.

Verstappen, however, did not have a proper opportunity to challenge pole-sitter Charles Leclerc, who had a mega race start, as the Monegasque was forced to retire from the race after hitting the barriers on Lap 18.

In a post-race press conference at the 2022 F1 French GP, the Dutchman was asked whether he had a faster car than Leclerc this weekend. Verstappen replied, saying:

“We will never know because we cannot swap cars, but it looked good from our side. I was very happy because I wanted to see immediately if we could follow or not compared to Austria where it was the other way around, where you know, I was in the lead, but I could barely hold on. But this time I think we were a lot more competitive. Of course, our straight-line speed was very beneficial, but because of that, of course, in the high-speed, we had to be a bit more careful.”

“And yeah, I stayed in his DRS for quite a while, but of course around here even driving on your own the tyres are already getting really hot. So I think by doing that, towards the pit stop, my tyres were a bit too hot. That’s why I think he pulled away a little bit. But it wasn’t anything, like, drastic, the way he was pulling away. So I still had good hope that we would have had a good fight on the other compound as well.”

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Championship gap between Ferrari and Red Bull larger "than it should have been", says Max Verstappen

Ferrari had a strong start to the 2022 F1 season with a 1-2 finish in the season opener in Bahrain. Their car's reliability woes, complemented by the team's questionable strategies, however, have nullified this advantage. As a result, this has created quite a large points gap to Red Bull in the constructors' standings, despite their relatively close car performance.

As reported by F1.com, Max Verstappen felt that Ferrari's gap to Red Bull is greater than it should be, saying:

“From our side, we know that we have to find, especially over one lap, quite a bit of performance. We’ll be working on it. It’s still important to always score points, even on a bad day, which we had in Austria. Of course, the lead we have is great, but it’s probably a bit bigger than what it should have been when you look at the car performances between the two cars.”

Currently, Red Bull have a 82-point advantage over Ferrari, and Max Verstappen remains at the top of the drivers' standings.