Verstappens takes Perez jab: 'That's the real key to being a good F1 driver'

Four races into the 2023 Formula 1 season and both Red Bull drivershad two wins each. The Miami GP entered with a minuscule six-pointdifference in favour of Verstappen. There was talk of a two-waybattle, but Verstappen believes the start of the 2023 season shouldbe put into perspective. "You have to paint the whole picture. Ihad to start from 15th place in Saudi Arabia," Verstappen told AutoMotor und Sport . "In Baku, I was lightly penalized by the safetycar. So from my point of view, it's not quite fair to talk about alevel playing field. Because that's not how I saw it. "You have totake into account all the circumstances that led to it. That hassomewhat distorted the impression." Verstappen: I'm not interestedin others opinions Once they reached the Azerbaijan Grand Prix,Verstappen became more and more familiar with the RB19. "It'sdifferent settings that have to come together. A few things you canadjust through the steering wheel: Brake balance, differential,engine braking," he explained. "The new tires also work a littledifferently. Dealing with them, deploying them a little bitdifferently, seemed to help me get more out of the car." This setthe Dutchman up on a run of 10 race wins in a row, which wouldeventually be broken by Carlos Sainz at the Singapore Grand Prix inOctober. By this point a lot of people wrote off Perez, but whatdoes Verstappen think? "I'm not interested in other people'sopinions. They don't know our car. I just try to get the best outof it. And I do that every time. I don't know how dominant this caris compared to previous cars. Nobody knows that. "I tune the carthe way I like it. And the other driver tunes it to his needs. Theengineers develop the car to make it faster. And not how I wouldlike it. "The same goes for the driving style. What is my drivingstyle? I don't know. I adapt to the needs of the car to make it thefastest. That's the key to being a really good Formula 1 driver.Adapting to what you get from the team."