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Verstappen: Another year learning right thing for me
Max Verstappen is happy to bide his team learning at Toro Rosso for another campaign, as he feels he is not yet performing at his best.
Jonathan Noble
Edited: Jan 7, 2016, 11:48 AM
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Although the Dutchman impressed a great deal during his rookie campaign, he says there remain areas of his driving where he knows he can progress, and elements of Formula 1 he wants to get more knowledge of.
"I think it is good for one more season to learn and understand it even a bit more - to get everything in place," he told Motorsport.com in an exclusive interview about if there was impatience to get in to a race-winning car.
"I am on a good way because we scored six times in a row points [at the end of the season prior to Abu Dhabi].
"I think it is very important, because you have a lot of guys who are also very fast, but they are a bit more up and down.
"So I think it is very good to show other teams that you can be very fast and good in overtaking, and be consistent. I think I can be very happy with that."
Personal doubts
Verstappen said that he began his season in F1 with some reservations about whether or not he could impress in the sport, but said they were similar feelings to those he has experienced in different categories throughout his career.
"It is always very difficult, and you get that in every series," he said. "Even when I jumped from go-karting to F3, you always question yourself a bit – like, can you do it?
"But it is always important to believe in yourself, and I am very relaxed person. So I told myself – let's just see what happens. I also did that in go karting.
"When you step up from one category to another, you never know what is going to happen. Or how good you will be doing. So, I always said – we will see. And that is what I did in F1."
Experience coming
Although Verstappen never appeared out of his depth, he says he ended 2015 much improved – simply through having seen out a campaign.
When asked where he felt he made his biggest gains, Verstappen said: "I think just more experience in general.
"You grow up as a driver as well, you understand the car better and you know what to do when you jump in. I think that made the big difference.
"In the beginning I was still learning the tracks, the car, and how to drive the car – because it was all new for me even though you do winter testing. So to go to a race weekend knowing that is a big difference."
Speaking about in which areas he wanted to improve on in 2016, he said: "I think in every aspect just be a little bit better. Try and make what you have now as 98 percent and make it all 100 percent…"
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