Despite a strong lobby to inform all and sundry that he is available for a top-line driver with Mercedes and Ferrari, Max Verstappen is covering all his bases by declaring that he can be world champion with Red Bull powered by Honda.
While results this year have been impressive for the Japanese auto giant and their energy drinks partners, they finally won races again in the top tier but they are still a tad behind the benchmark power units that do the bulk of the winning while the RB15 was not plug-and-win out-of-the-box.
The 22-year-old Dutchman, a seven-time Grand Prix winner, told RacingNews365, “I believe I can become world champion with Red Bull-Honda.
“Clearly we did not start the season well in recent years. If you want to be F1 World Champion, then a strong start to the season is very important. However, I do believe that, as a team, we can get to that level.”
“Red Bull has of course already won four consecutive world championships in the past. This year we have entered into a new partnership with Honda and that simply takes time,” explained Verstappen
“That’s why we really have to show what we have next year, and we’ll see from there,” he added.