The championship pressure's all on McLaren, says Verstappen

Max Verstappen says the pressure is not on him in the championship fight but on the two McLaren drivers, where there’s a potential distraction in battling each other heading into this weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Lando Norris leads Oscar Piastri by one point with four rounds remaining, while Verstappen is 36 adrift of Norris after a recent strong run of form in which the Dutchman has scored three victories and three further podiums in the past six races. Verstappen says his performances and ability to get back into the fight already make the year a success, and means he has nothing to lose however the final races play out.

“For me there is no pressure,” Verstappen said. “Even if I don't win it, I still know that I drove a really good season. I can happily say that to try and replicate the season that I've done with people on the grid, I think it will be very tough.

“You just need to be realistic in the chances that we had throughout the season. To still be talking about being in this fight is already remarkable in the first place.

"For sure, it has to do with the turnaround of the team. They never gave up and that's the strength of the team. Nevertheless, I think when you're over 100 points behind and still we're talking about being in this fight, it's very impressive.”

With the two McLaren drivers in the lead, Verstappen says the fact they are fighting each other as well as him can be to his advantage, although he’d rather have the performance advantage that Norris and Piastri have had for the majority of the season.

“For sure, the distraction maybe is a little bit there at McLaren between the two drivers, but at the same time, they still have a very fast car," he said. "So if you would tell me what I would like to have, give me the distraction. I don't care anyway. Just give me the fastest car and I'll drive it as fast as it needs to be.

“It can be nice for me, but at the same time, we just need to make sure that we have a faster car. We need to be ahead of them. It's as simple as that.”

Verstappen also sees Mercedes and Ferrari potentially having roles to play if either team can be particularly competitive at an upcoming venue, as he feels Red Bull will need one weekend where he can close the gap by a significant margin.

“First of all, we also need to be faster than them to the end of the season to close the gap down," he said. "So we'll see. We had some good rounds where the gap came down. But now to the end with four races, it's still a pretty big gap. I need to score a lot more points every single weekend, which is not that straightforward.

“I mean, if you would give me the 2023 season with how everything was and you tell me I'm 36 points behind with four races to go, I'm like, ‘Yeah, no problem. Easy.’ But this season, of course, has been a little bit different.

“So it comes down to us optimizing everything and nailing the weekend. And besides that, probably we need a little bit of luck at one round to create a bigger offset. But we're going to give it all. And if that's going to be enough at the end of the year, I don't know. But there's also not much to lose. I mean, worst case we have P3, and best case you can win a championship.”