Max Verstappen hasn’t secured a victory since the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in May. Despite this, and the perceived advantage of McLaren, the champion driver maintains a positive outlook.

Verstappen acknowledged the challenges ahead after qualifying. “I don’t sit here and think it is indeed going to be easy to be in front of McLaren,” he said. “The whole season has shown that.”

He added, “This season we have had a few good qualifyings but in the race we always seem to struggle a little bit compared to them.”

Verstappen remains determined. “I am going to give it a good go. Friday, my long run was nice. I’m not sure it is indeed going to be enough but if we can do something similar and they don’t improve too much then I have a feeling that maybe we have a chance.”

“To stay here will be tough but we will see what we can do,” Verstappen concluded.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella offered insights into why Verstappen might pose a greater threat during the race.According to Stella, the McLaren excels in corners but loses ground on the straights during qualifying.

Stella explained that, “In racing, the corners become quite a bit longer, becuase you brake earlier, you go later on throttle, so the grip-limited area extends, and this would make our car just naturally more competitive.”

He also noted Verstappen’s strong practice lap times. “however, from what we have seen in terms of lap times in practice, if we take the lap times that Verstappen was able to do, they were very comparable to ours. I think he has done a whole long run in 1.23s, which is very fast, very competitive.”

Stella also mentioned the performance of other teams. “We have seen good lap times for Ferrari, good lap times for Mercedes.”

He added, “The Tarmac is very high grip after the resurface last year. I think ther won’t be necessarily much degradation, and it won’t be the natural characteristic of McLaren being very good when the grip is low.”

“I think the field will be much more compact, not only in qualifying like we have seen today, but also in the race,” Stella stated.