Max Verstappen feels he will have to raise his game during qualifying if he is to match Red Bull Racing team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, although the Dutchman feels he has the race pace to beat the Australian.
Since switching over from the Scuderia Toro Rosso team, Verstappen has qualified behind his more experienced team-mate every time, but has beaten Ricciardo three times in five races on race day.
Verstappen is not overly worried about seeing Ricciardo out-qualify him, feeling his performances during Saturday have been strong.
“You shouldn’t forget I’m driving next to someone who’s really quick, so it’s a different approach,” said Verstappen to the media at Silverstone. “I have to up my game compared to Toro Rosso.
“He is really on top of [qualifying], but he’s had some struggles in the race. That’s my part [where I excel], I think. I just need to find to make it a bit better in qualifying. But it’s not dramatic; I’m one behind him, or another one behind. I’ve been a bit unlucky as well.
“There were the red flags in Baku, and then in Austria, in my Q2 run there was something odd going on with my recharge mode, and I arrived on the straight with much less power.
“It’s all going pretty well [with qualifying], it’s just not showing yet in the results.”
