Verstappen almost didn’t believe in the title anymore after his two retirements

After the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Max Verstappen now leads the championship by 21 points ahead of his closest rival, who happens to be his teammate Sergio Pérez. Charles Leclerc is trailing the reigning world champion by 34 points after two retirements in the last three races, in Barcelona and Baku.

A scenario that Verstappen also experienced at the beginning of the season. His engine first failed in Bahrain for the first Grand Prix of the season, before having to retire for a second time two races later in Melbourne. After these three initial races, the Dutchman had a 46-point deficit to his Monégasque rival.

For the podcast “Talking Bull,” Max Verstappen reflected on this difficult start to the season. He admits to having greatly doubted his ability to win the championship at this precise moment, despite the length of the season. « Maybe we have a good car, maybe not. Then it seemed like we had a competitive car, so we could be in the championship fight. But after two retirements, and being 46 points behind, I told myself “this championship is gone, it won’t happen,” or at least it will take a lot of time to catch up. »

But after the mistake in Imola and the retirement in Barcelona for Leclerc, Verstappen quickly got back in the game. The reigning world champion is also aware that everything can quickly change once again. And then, in three races, as a team it turned around and now we are both at the top [of the standings]. It’s very satisfying, but of course, we also know that it can change very quickly, so we have to be cautious. We really need to focus on not retiring anymore, because the two we’ve already had are too many. It has been a bit hectic and crazy in the first races we’ve had so far.

If Ferrari doesn’t quickly recover, Max Verstappen could quickly gain a crucial lead in the world championship, despite there still being many races left before the end of the season.