It hasn't been the best of seasons so far for Red Bull Racing's max Verstappen with the young Dutchman suffering more than his fair share of retirements already and the season is only halfway through.
However, as we head into Hungary, his RB13 will be sporting some updates that he hopes will enable the Milton Keynes based squad to secure a podium finish, hopefully with him up there and not his teammate, Daniel Ricciardo.
Max is also feeling boosted by the fact that his team boss, Christian Horner believes his driving skills have improved this year, and now all he needs is a reliable car beneath him to show it more often…
We have had a lot of talk about the implementation of the Halo cockpit head protection in 2018. I'd just like to get your thoughts on that…
OK, yeah, I don't like it but of course at the end of the day you have to respect the decision of the FIA. I think since we introduced the Virtual Safety Car, that reduced a lot of risk when you are speeding under the yellow flag in the race and then also with the wheel tethers, they are quite strong at the moment so I don't think you will lose a wheel very easily, and when there are parts flying around from the car, it's not really going to protect you. So, I don't really understand why we should need it.
It's been a difficult opening ten races of the year for you; five retirements but Red Bull team principle Christian Horner has said this week that in adversity, you're becoming a better driver. I just wondered if you agreed with him.
It's nice to hear. No I think it's always the target to improve every single year so I think I definitely improved again compared to last year but it's a bit difficult to… or it was difficult to show, of course, when you retire but luckily in Silverstone I had no issues but we still need to be honest to ourselves and now there was an issue on the other car, so we still need to be more reliable I think. We'll start here in Hungary and see how it goes.
And how do you rate your chances this weekend? Red Bull's been on the podium every year for the last four years; is that your expectation?
We have to wait and see how the updates will work but also from the guys ahead, because they are not standing still. So hopefully we will be close but of course in Silverstone we went a little bit in the wrong direction but if you look to the previous races I think we were actually catching up so let's try to continue in that way and hopefully we will find a good balance and then I'm sure if there are some things happening like they always do here I think in Hungary, then we have a good chance.
We've got a big weekend, summer break coming up. Where are you guys going: Barbados, anybody for California, anybody for Hawaii? What have you guys got planned for the summer break?
Yeah, some friends and family holiday.
Are you going to tell us where?
No.
The track limits were enforced electronically last year. Were you in favour of that solution over some of the aggressive kerbs that are damaging the cars on some tracks?
It's not ideal for our car because of the ride height we are running. It's easy to destroy your front wing or the front of the floor so it's not great and I think we can still fine tune it a bit but in one way you have to stay off them. It's not too bad but it's not fantastic yet.
Max, Mercedes announced that they're going to go into Formula E. I just want to know what you think of the sport; do you think it's exciting, perhaps not fast enough for somebody like you? What do you think of it?
It can be a bit faster, I think but that will… you know the evolution with the cars for sure, that will be done and I think the rest… yeah, there are some exciting races, absolutely. I try to watch it and I think you also have to get rid of the pit stop where you have to jump in another car but of course that's going to happen, so we will see what happens there.
Next year, you will have more protection so will you risk more and push even more harder, even harder?
That would mean you're doing a very bad job at the moment so I don't think so.
I know it's hard to predict what an upgrade will do but what are you hoping for realistically?
That we can close the gap to the guys ahead. I think that's the obvious target for us at the moment and then we will see what happens.
Max, do you think this track is better for you guys and especially as at Silverstone you said you didn't have enough pace there, when you look at Ferrari and Mercedes? Do you think it will be better for you here?
We hope so. In general it should be a little bit better for us, also like Stoffel said, the power sensitivity is not as big. But still, you need a good balance and we have to try and work on that.
Going back to the halo thing, do you think it's disturbing for a driver from the point of view that it's difficult to see from the car when the halo is on and do you think that it will impact your driving?
The one I tried I didn't like the visibility and the thing in front of you so yeah, it's not great. Don't like it.
Just following up on the previous question: are you worried that sticking the halo in front of your eyes will take away some of the excitement of driving a Formula One car?
I think that as soon as I have that thing on my car I don't like it and I'm not even sitting in the car so the excitement has already gone before I'm even sitting in the car.
