With the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix taking place this weekend on the Jeddah high-speed track, where performance matters, Verstappen’s title rival Lewis Hamilton will be powered by its newest engine.
It’s the same one that Hamilton used well at the Brazilian Grand Prix, and his lead in power helped him dash from the bottom of the grid to a brilliant Main Event victory in the sprint race.
But while Mercedes’ new engines provide good performance gains as their performance degrades over the course of their life, Verstappen says its Honda engines are much more consistent.
While this is a positive thing to ensure that its package can stay competitive over the longer term, it does mean that there is little incentive to opt for a new entity like Hamilton.
“Well, we don’t have that climax [in power] with a new engine like Mercedes, ”said Verstappen when asked by Autosport about a possible tactical change.
“Our engine is pretty consistent throughout its life. Changing the engine like this doesn’t really help us. “
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
While Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko was quoted as saying that Verstappen could choose a new engine at the season finale in Abu Dhabi, the Dutchman is not so convinced.
When asked whether the change would only take place for reasons of reliability, Verstappen said: “Yes, but on my part there are no doubts. I know what kind of engines I have and normally we should be able to deal with them. “
With two races to go in the championship standings, Verstappen is eight points ahead of Hamilton, but his rival is betting on wins in Brazil and Qatar.
While it seems that Hamilton is on the rise, Verstappen is well aware of how quickly things can change.
“I don’t believe in anything like momentum myself,” he said. “You have to perform well every weekend.
“We’ll see this weekend, but I always find it difficult to predict exactly how the situation will be. It depends on the details, but anyway more can happen on a street circuit than on a normal circuit. “
When asked whether his focus was on winning both final races or just doing enough to get the points needed for the title, Verstappen said, “I always try to win the race, but the most important thing is Of course, after Abu Dhabi, we are still at the top. “
Additional quotations from Erwin Jaeggi.
The post Fresh F1 engine won’t bring Mercedes-like performance gains first appeared on monter-une-startup.
