Verstappen underwhelmed by F1 finale stuck behind Raikkonen

After a disappointing first full season at Red Bull, Verstappen says he is hoping for more horsepower and a move towards Mercedes and Ferrari's speed in 2018.

The Dutch driver came home to an underwhelming fifth place in Abu Dhabi after a race where his teammate Daniel Ricciardo once again retired but Verstappen was far from pleased with his 2017 finale stuck behind Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen for the majority of the race.

“A bit boring as all the time I saw Kimi in front,” Verstappen said. “You can’t follow here so… we were quite a bit faster I think but this track just didn’t given the opportunity to pass.”

Hamilton had also complained about the lack of opportunities to overtake and claimed that cars needed to be 1.4 seconds faster to make a move here. However, in the midfield several cars managed five or six place gains.

Verstappen said work on 2018 would start immediately to try to catch Mercedes and Ferrari, “Well we need to continue to work hard to get the car even better. Starting from the engine side we hope we get some more horsepower to be close to the top guys and then we’ll find out.”

The Red Bull driver may have only collected four podiums in 2017 but two were race wins – coming in Malaysia and Mexico – as the 20-year-old adapted to live in the top team having stepped up from Toro Rosso midway through last season.