Verstappen expects tough battle against Ferrari: 'No guarantees'

Despite the fact that Red Bull Racing is in good shape for Sunday's Imola Grand Prix, the team is taking into account a strong Ferrari. Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez expect the team to come back strong during the race.

"There are no guarantees, I still expect it to be very close and I the battle tomorrow will be difficult. We are very focused on what is ahead and we hope to do a good job tomorrow", Verstappen says in Red Bull's official press release.

During the Australian Grand Prix, the Ferrari car proved to be a lot faster than Red Bull, so Verstappen and Perez did not come close to Charles Leclerc's times. The conditions during the race will be different from those during the sprint race, and in addition rain is predicted.

"We have seen in Melbourne and we have seen here already that it can change fairly quickly so either team can turn things around and we certainly expect the Ferraris to be strong. I got really close to Charles today near the end but it was just a sprint so let’s what we can do over race distance", Perez adds.

It is to be hoped that Red Bull runs a good race tomorrow, because after the Dutchman's two DNF's, the team cannot afford another DNF. Verstappen's poor start during the sprint race should not be repeated either. "We’ve got the data from today, so we’ll need to make sure we don’t make the same mistakes tomorrow", Christian Horner ends.