Max Verstappen once again downgraded Lewis Hamilton’s comments on pressure in battle. Earlier on Thursday, seven-time champion Hamilton, commented on Verstappen’s inexperience. He said, “I know Max has not won a championship in a long, long time. I know what it’s like going for your first championship, and I know the pressures that come with that.”
Verstappen, on the other hand, shrugged off his response when asked in his own press conference how he has managed to handle said pressure.
He replied. “I like what I’m doing, you know. So that takes the pressure off.”
Verstappen continued “It’s not the first time I’ve been in a championship fight. Yes, the first time in F1 but not in my life so that doesn’t really change because you need to win, and that’s what I’ve been doing in the past so I need to strive to do the same here.”
Verstappen holds a 12-point lead over Hamilton ahead of a thrilling run of five races in six weeks to finish one of F1’s greatest title battles. The battle will commence with this weekend’s Mexico City GP.
The Mexico City GP looks all set to provide for a strong weekend for Verstappen, who has claimed two victories at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. However, Verstappen stressed “You can look good on paper but you still have to nail your set-up. It might look good for us but we have to be on it from P1 onwards and make sure we go in the right direction with the car.”
He added, “There’s still a lot of races to go and a lot of things can go wrong. I just need to be focused on this weekend and then after this we’ll focus on the next, and then we’ll see in Abu Dhabi.”
One thing is for sure, Verstappen will not be changing his often-uncompromising racing approach.
He said, “My approach will be the same as the whole year. I always try to score the most available points out there, I always have, like Lewis does, like everyone else does. Of course, you always try to keep it clean.”