{"id":527922,"date":"2026-03-09T02:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T02:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/527922\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T02:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T02:34:10","slug":"max-verstappen-not-concerned-by-deficit-to-mercedes-after-australia-comeback-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/527922\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen \u2018not concerned\u2019 by deficit to Mercedes after Australia comeback drive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">Max Verstappen has admitted that worrying about the competitive gap to Mercedes is \u201cnot going to change anything\u201d after he charged to P6 from a P20 start in the Australian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">On the rare occasion that the Red Bull driver qualifies towards the back of the grid, he typically manages to return to the points as the bare minimum, something which he repeated at Albert Park as he gained 14 positions through the race.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">He was <a class=\"text-brand-hot-red underline decoration-1 hover:decoration-[3px]\" data-f1rd-a7s-click=\"rich_text_atom_click\" data-f1rd-a7s-context=\"eyJhY3Rpb25UeXBlIjoia25vY2tlZF9vdXRfaW5fcTFfbGlua19jbGlja2VkIiwiY2xpY2tUZXh0Ijp0cnVlLCJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZm9ybXVsYTEuY29tL2VuL2xhdGVzdC9hcnRpY2xlL3dhdGNoLXZlcnN0YXBwZW4tY3Jhc2hlcy1vdXQtb2YtcTEtaW4tcXVhbGlmeWluZy1mb3ItYXVzdHJhbGlhbi1ncmFuZC1wcml4LjVteG4xU3N3U0pIb0xKMlBJUTk1UG4iLCJwYXRoVHlwZSI6ImludGVybmFsIn0=\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/latest\/article\/watch-verstappen-crashes-out-of-q1-in-qualifying-for-australian-grand-prix.5mxn1SswSJHoLJ2PIQ95Pn\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">knocked out in Q1<\/a> following a massive crash that saw him end up in the barriers before he could set a flying lap, prompting Red Bull to put him on hard tyres and elongate his first race stint.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">Taking eight points in the action-packed race could be considered an achievement, but <a class=\"text-brand-hot-red underline decoration-1 hover:decoration-[3px]\" data-f1rd-a7s-click=\"rich_text_atom_click\" data-f1rd-a7s-context=\"eyJhY3Rpb25UeXBlIjoidmVyc3RhcHBlbl9saW5rX2NsaWNrZWQiLCJjbGlja1RleHQiOnRydWUsInBhdGgiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5mb3JtdWxhMS5jb20vZW4vZHJpdmVycy9tYXgtdmVyc3RhcHBlbiIsInBhdGhUeXBlIjoiaW50ZXJuYWwifQ==\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/drivers\/max-verstappen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Verstappen<\/a> crossed the line 54.617s behind winner George Russell, demonstrating a significant gap to Mercedes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">Asked whether he was worried about how large the Silver Arrows\u2019 early advantage is, he responded: \u201cI can be concerned about it but it\u2019s not going to change anything, right? I\u2019m not concerned about it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">\u201cWe just work as a team to try and close that gap and step by step, hopefully we can be more competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">Verstappen added that the race felt \u201cokay\u201d as he became Red Bull\u2019s sole finisher \u2013 after starting in an impressive P3, his team mate <a class=\"text-brand-hot-red underline decoration-1 hover:decoration-[3px]\" data-f1rd-a7s-click=\"rich_text_atom_click\" data-f1rd-a7s-context=\"eyJhY3Rpb25UeXBlIjoiaXNhY2tfaGFkamFyX2xpbmtfY2xpY2tlZCIsImNsaWNrVGV4dCI6dHJ1ZSwicGF0aCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmZvcm11bGExLmNvbS9lbi9kcml2ZXJzL2lzYWNrLWhhZGphciIsInBhdGhUeXBlIjoiaW50ZXJuYWwifQ==\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/drivers\/isack-hadjar\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Isack Hadjar<\/a> was forced to retire from the race with smoke billowing from the car.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">While a larger haul of points could have been on the table for the team, the Dutchman searched for the positives after learning plenty about the behaviour of the new cars, including how to pass those in front.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">\u201cOf course, we have quite a bit more pace than the midfield so I just needed to clear that cleanly, which I did,\u201d Verstappen said. \u201cI learned a lot also in the battles and how to use the battery and stuff so that was quite a positive thing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">\u201cAt one point I was quite by myself, just settling in. I think the two hard compounds today didn\u2019t really work for us so a lot of degradation, a lot of graining, and that made me then of course do a two-stop.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen has admitted that worrying about the competitive gap to Mercedes is \u201cnot going to change anything\u201d&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-527922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}