Verstappen tempers expectations: "Waiting until next year to solve that"

For Max Verstappen, the third starting spot is now familiar territory. With the two Mercedes ahead of him and his teammate Alexander Albon starting 4th, everything seems to indicate that the Dutchman will take his first podium place in Bahrain. The win is probably not there, because Mercedes is still very fast.

Verstappen himself recognises this, although he has hopes for next year. "We are, of course, pushing hard to close the gap, but we know that there are a number of weak points that we cannot solve this year, so we will have to wait until next year," explains the Dutchman to Autosport.

The gap with Mercedes is still huge this year, and because of the rules that you can only develop to a limited extent in 2021, that gap will not diminish any time soon either. "Of course I would have preferred us to be closer to Mercedes, but we are still learning a lot about the car."

Verstappen expects that there will still be improvements.

"We will, of course, make some changes for next year and we will try to bring it all together. Hopefully we will then be closer to it."

Lewis Hamilton still has a tip for Red Bull Racing to improve. "They continue to improve. They have a very strong car and maybe with some improvements to the engine they can be even closer next year," concludes Hamilton to Autosport.