Max Verstappen & Christian Horner assure that Red Bull will never give up as Belgian GP looms

Red Bull had started the 2021 Formula One (F1) season on a strong note. They won five consecutive races, from the Monaco GP to the Austrian GP as Max Verstappen looked set to be the one who denied Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton a record-breaking eighth world championship win. This season has arguably been the most difficult for Hamilton with Mercedes ever since Nico Rosberg won the title in 2016. However, things have taken a turn for the worse for Red Bull as they only managed to score a combined two points from the last couple of races before the summer break. Hamilton currently leads the driver’s championship race while Mercedes are on top in the constructor’s championship table.

A number of unfortunate crashes, including the one at Silverstone in the British GP and the one caused by Hamilton’s teammate Valterri Bottas, saw the silver arrows take a slender advantage over Red Bull going into the break. Mercedes are 12 points ahead of Red Bull while Hamilton is just eight ahead of Verstappen at the moment. The title race is too close to call with a large part of the season yet to pan out. For Red Bull, the coming weekend will be a stern test. Spa will see the first race after the summer break as the drivers will gear up for the Belgian GP. Verstappen and his team will be looking to get some points from the defending champions.

‘WE WILL NOT GIVE UP’

“It’s a lot of freak moments at the moment that cost us a lot of points,” said Verstappen who is desperate to become one of the youngest drivers to ever win a Formula One world championship title. “They are of course very quick, but we never give up,” the Dutch driver added. Red Bull boss Christian Horner also echoed his driver’s sentiments as he said that there was a lot to be positive about despite a few unfortunate incidents.

“We’ve had six victories, and the races we’ve lost are with a tyre explosion (in Azerbaijan), being taken out at Silverstone, and then Hungary,” Horner said. “I think we’ve got a lot to be positive about and the whole team is fully motivated. We’re going to come out for the second half of this championship and it’s all to play for. The difference between second and first, I think the second half of this year is going to be epic and we’re not giving up anything,” he added.

STERN TEST FOR MERCEDES

For Mercedes, the sailing has not been smooth so far this season. They were quite behind Red Bull at one point and can be considered lucky that they find themselves at the top for the moment. Undoubtedly, it is going to be Toto Wolff’s and Hamilton’s biggest test to keep the crown at the silver arrows.

“It’s definitely been a hard slog for us,” Hamilton said in Hungary. “Those guys with their update, they had I think a combination of things but they took a really good step once we got to the midpoint. Monaco onwards was intense but the upgrade really has worked and then we’ve just been working on our procedure through the weekend and trying to extract more from the car and I think now we’re a lot closer,” he added.