Max Verstappen reveals he was managing his pace throughout the 2023 F1 Spanish GP

Max Verstappen claims he had more pace in his car, despite winning the 2023 Spanish GP with a significant margin. The Dutchman complained about grip with the hard tyres and claimed he was managing his tyres throughout the race.

Asked if he had more pace in the car despite leading the race, Max Verstappen said:

“I guess so. If you had to try and catch up, let's say, probably yes. But it's not necessary. It's all about managing your tyres trying to reach the stint length.”

Explaining his comfortable race at the front, he added:

“I think it was important to try to keep the lead in Turn 1. I know it's quite tight. But actually, we had a very good start. And then from there onwards I just tried to manage the pace on the Medium. I knew everyone behind me mainly was on a Soft, and I think especially in those last eight laps of that stint I could really create a big gap. And then, of course, we went onto the Hard tyre."

"And I actually expected them to be a little bit better. But somehow, they just didn't have a lot of grip and I was actually sliding around quite a bit. The pace was still OK, but I couldn't really create much more of a gap, not how I would have liked. But then of course, we just did the amount of laps we had to do on that tyre and then we pitted again for the Soft and that actually felt a lot nicer to drive.”

Leading the race by a approximately 20 seconds, Max Verstappen claimed he was managing his tyres throughout the race on the medium compound in particular. The Dutchman felt there was more pace in his car.

Complaining about the gap, the 25-year-old believes he could have created a bigger gap and was not satisfied with the gap he created. He felt he lacked grip on the hard compound tyre and was sliding around towards the end.

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Max Verstappen believes his winning streak has been good

Claiming the 40th victory of his career, Max Verstappen is nearing Michael Schumacher’s record of 41 career victories which will be easy to surpass.

The Dutchman believes it has been a good run so far winning six out of the eight races on the calendar so far. However, he believes it won’t be a consistent run as some of the tracks on the calendar might not suit them as well as expected.

Commenting on his winning streak in the post-race press conference after the Spanish GP, Max Verstappen said:

“It's a good period. But you know, we have to keep on working and trying to find more performance. I'm happy in the car. And I think the last few race weekends have definitely been a lot more positive for me. But this is one weekend where I think it went really well. But we also know that maybe some other tracks it's not like this, you know, so a lot of races to come where we again have to perform really well to try and win the race.”

Leading the driver’s championship with a total of 170 points, Max Verstappen has built a comfortable lead of 53 points over his teammate Sergio Perez. The Red Bull champion is set to hunt his third title which will equal his title tally to the likes of Ayrton Senna, Niki Lauda and Sir Jackie Stewart.

In the Constructors championship Red Bull Racing lead the points table with a total of 287 points, 135 points clear off Mercedes who have just climbed to second in the championship.