Red Bull can always count on me - Verstappen

Max Verstappen says he's shown Red Bull he will always give his all for the team with his performances after winning the Sprint at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Red Bull’s first race weekend without Christian Horner as team principal got off to a winning start early on Saturday, with Verstappen overtaking Oscar Piastri and winning the Sprint. The Dutchman, who later went on to qualify fourth for the grand prix itself, says even without his victory, Red Bull will always get full commitment from him.

“The team can always count on me,” Verstappen said. “They will always get my very best, whoever is in charge. They know that. I’m never holding back or anything. I’m always trying to give them the best possible result, and that’s also what they pay me for. For sure, it’s positive. We need, of course, positive energy, and that’s a great start for us.”

Giving Laurent Mekies a victory in the first competitive race as Red Bull team principal, Verstappen says little has changed at this stage since Horner was dismissed, but that the early atmosphere has been positive.

“It’s very difficult to, within two weeks, suddenly say a lot of things need to change out of the blue," he said. "It’s about starting the relationship and just understanding how everyone is operating. Then, at one point, you come to conclusions and maybe you want to change something, and this is something that will happen over the coming weeks, months.

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“Really early days, but so far, he’s very keen and very motivated, and that’s exactly what you want. I got on very well with him. It’s been a very good start.”

The momentum stalled slightly with Verstappen ending up fourth in qualifying after a mistake on his final lap, but he says there was more performance available, making him feel he should be able to get the better of Charles Leclerc for third place on Sunday.

“Q3 wasn't very good for whatever reason," he said. "The first set just didn't have the same grip. When normally you make nice progression, I couldn't at all, and in the second set we tried something and that basically backfired, unfortunately, because already starting the lap I had so much wheel spin that I couldn't put the power down. Then the same right out of Turn 1, just wheel spin up until fourth gear or something, which lost me like 0.2s already.

“Now, even with not being entirely happy with the balance, and losing 0.2s in Turn 1, then it actually looks quite OK, but it was just not what I hoped for. The balance is not where I want it to be to really attack around here.

“Normally [I'm not able to fight in the wet], because McLaren is even stronger in the wet than in the dry, because the overheating is even bigger, of course, on an intermediate, so they have that really well under control. For me, the goal is at least P3.”