Verstappen: This is exactly what we were dreaming of

The 2021 and 2022 Formula 1 World Champion kicked off his Title defense campaign in the best way possible, winning the season opener in Bahrain without any hint of challenge from his rivals.

"This is exactly what we were dreaming of and what we wanted to achieve, so yeah, great day for the whole team," Verstappen said after the race.

"It has been a great start for us, for the whole team, so this is not something we are used to. We are very happy at the moment, but we always keep working," he added.

Going into details on his race, the Dutchman added: "I think for me, the first stint was the most important, where I could pull a gap. Once we had the gap it was just about making sure we could do our stint plan. And that worked out well.

"I think also, the car was working on every [tyre] compound we put on the car, so it looked a bit of course lonely out there, but there was still a lot of things to look at, or fine-tune, but overall I’m very happy to win here," he maintained.

Looking back on his disastrous 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix, Verstappen continued: "Last year was very disappointing of course… and I do think our mentality has also changed a bit compared to a few years ago, in terms of how we are operating and how we are developing a car.

"It’s great to finally have a car which is able to win from the start – and it also helps that the car is not so overweight, it’s perfectly fine now.

"This is a great start, but we also know that throughout the season you have to keep developing. Of course, we are on that, but we hope that’s hoping to be more than the other teams because you have to keep that advantage going.

"Saudi is a different track to this one," Verstappen said of the upcoming Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. "You have a lot more straights, fast corners, and a lot less deg.

"So I think here we were particularly good on deg – so I do expect on race pace that everyone is closer in Jeddah," he concluded.