Max Verstappen is proud of what he and Red Bull have accomplished this season after claiming a record-breaking victory at the 2023 Italian Grand Prix.
The Dutchman passed pole sitter Carlos Sainz on Lap 15 and didn’t look back from there, moving ahead of Sebastian Vettel with his 10th win a row and extending Red Bull’s wining run to 15 races.
The result keeps the chances of a perfect season alive, and while team principal Christian Horner isn’t keen to consider the prospect, Verstappen admits what Red Bull have achieved so far is special.
“It’s something you don’t expect to happen,” Verstappen told reporters, including Total-Motorsport, after the race.
“I hadn’t thought at the beginning of the season that something like this is possible. So, I’m very proud, but also just very happy with the race in general.
“We had good pace, we could look after our tires. It was quite an interesting little battle at the beginning to try and get into Turn 1 but we just didn’t have the top speed to do so.
“So I had to wait for a tiny mistake or tiny lock up, and Carlos had a little lockup which made me had a good run out of Turn 2. Then I could just focus on my own pace and the car was really nice to drive.”
Verstappen aware of how special 2023 is
When pressed on how remarkable his run of wins is, Verstappen noted that he was mostly proud of how everyone at Red Bull have performed this season.
“For me I’m just proud for the whole team effort all year,” he said. “What we are doing at the moment to go and win every race this year is something that we definitely are enjoying, because I don’t think these kind of seasons come around very often, and that’s the same with winning 10 in a row.”
All eyes on Singapore
Next up is a tricky street race in Singapore, which could prove tricky for Verstappen and Red Bull.
When asked how things should play out there, the Dutchman admits it may not be the strongest weekend for him and the team.
“It will be little more difficult for us, but we’ll see,” said Verstappen. “We’ll do our best, and we’ll try to go in there and win again, but it’s not going to be the strongest weekend for us.”
