Verstappen won’t change approach despite chance of clinching maiden F1 title

Verstappen has an eight-point lead over Lewis Hamilton in the drivers’ championship with just two rounds to go.

The Dutchman could clinch the title at this weekend’s inaugural race in Jeddah should results go his way, although it’s more likely to go down to Abu Dhabi next weekend.

Even with the title on the line, Verstappen insists it’s business as usual this weekend.

“Like I’ve done the whole season, there’s no change in that,” Verstappen said.

“It’s a new track, first of all we need to learn the track and see how that goes in FP1. For the rest, I just focus on the weekend and try to be as competitive as I can be.”

Verstappen admitted that he’s been keeping himself busy during the break between Qatar and Saudi Arabia to ‘shut out the outside noise’.

“By always being very neutral, not read positive or negative things, in general not read too many things,” Verstappen explained.

“Be busy with other things in life. I come to the weekend and I focus on F1 and I do my things off the track as well, preparing on the simulator. But then I’m also busy with other stuff, I think that helps a lot.”

Even if Verstappen and Red Bull come short at the end of the season, he believes they should be proud of what they’ve achieved in 2021.

“It’s been a great year for us, we’ve had a lot of good moments and it’s just more enjoyable,” he added.

“Last year was pretty boring for me, because basically all the time I was in third, I did another stop and I was still third, there wasn’t much happening for me. In a way it’s not how you like to race, but that sometimes happens when one team is very dominant.

“That’s why this year, we really turned it around well, we really improved the car. To be in this title fight to the end is very impressive from our side. Of course, I’ll try to enjoy the last two races, it doesn’t matter where we end up, we’ve had a really, really good season as a team.”