Max Verstappen on 2022 F1 title race: ‘Complacency not allowed’

Verstappen has a substantial 80-point lead over Charles Leclerc with nine races remaining, capitalising on Ferrari’s poor reliability and strategy mishaps in the first half of the season.

Despite his enormous lead, Red Bull have often not had the quickest car, particularly over one-lap.

However, Red Bull are expected to thrive at Spa-Francorchamps with their strengths coming on the straights.

Looking ahead to the rest of the season, Verstappen dismissed any questions about ‘relaxing’ or getting ‘complacent’.

“I think it would be wrong to relax,” Verstappen said. “So many things can still go wrong, or can go right. I think that the intention for us is that we want to win more races this season. That’s how we approach the remaining races. Not only winning but we want to be consistent, we don’t want to retire. We had our little issues in the beginning but we’ll see how competitive we will be. 

“It’s not allowed. That can happen when you stop racing. If that would be the case, then it’s also time to stop racing because you don’t want it enough anymore.” 

Verstappen says he and Red Bull are aiming to win every race in the second half of the year.

“Like I said before, I think all the team thinks the same way,” Verstappen added. “We want to win more races, we are not here to say ‘We can only finish second or third’. We don’t work like that, we always want the best, we want to win. 

“We don’t want to give wins to other teams just for being safe. We also have to finish the race first of without any issues. But there’s still nine races to go, we are targeting to win nine races.”

Verstappen has eight wins to his name - should he win six more races, he will have the record for the most wins in a season (14). 

Speaking about potentially breaking that record, he said: “If it happens, it would be great. It’s another five wins I think to be equal. I think so far this season, it’s always been super close for a win anyway between Ferrari and us. I don’t think it would be very easy to beat that record.”