Verstappen explains why he doesn’t ‘really care’ about the Drivers’ Championship

Max Verstappen has insisted that he doesn’t “really care” about the fight for second place in the Drivers’ Championship and would rather focus on improving Red Bull’s challenger for 2027.

Recent results have demonstrated that the Milton Keynes-based outfit should never be written off – after a frustrating wait for victories, Verstappen marginally missed out in Azerbaijan before clinching consecutive wins in Malaysia and Singapore.

Their resurgence has propelled the Dutchman up the standings, where he now sits just six points behind George Russell in P2 and five adrift of third-placed Lewis Hamilton, while Red Bull are also level on points with McLaren.

Asked ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix how important a strong finish in the Drivers’ Championship would be, Verstappen replied: “I don’t really care, because it’s only about first. So for me, I don’t care if I’m second or fifth.

“The only thing that we want to try and achieve is to be P3 in the Constructors’. That’s what I think the team wants, so that’s what we’ll try to do.”

Although Red Bull haven’t finished outside of the top three in the Teams’ Championship since 2015, Verstappen went on to explain that his biggest priority is ensuring that they begin next season with as strong a car as possible.

“[There are] still a lot of things that we want to change, and I hope that it will bring the car a bit more together,” he said. “That’s been the target already for a long time.

“Of course, we have improved a lot this year, but I think we are nowhere near satisfied enough, so there will still be a decent amount of changes for next year.”

Verstappen has won at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez five times in his career, but Red Bull’s struggles last time out in Austin – where he was unable to hold off Charles Leclerc for P2 – left him reluctant to expect another triumph.

“There were a few little issues that we found, which of course we were dealing with throughout the weekend,” he explained. “So it’s more about trying to learn from them, trying to fix them and trying to have a little bit more of a straightforward race.

“It’s not the same track, so it’s a very different scenario. It’s very hard to say. Of course, if we fix or know how to fix some of the things that we had in Austin, naturally your pace is better. It’s very simple.

“I had a bit of damage on my car. Some other bits were not where we wanted them to be, and from the engine side, it was not where we wanted it to be operating and performing, also in terms of horsepower.

“So a lot of little things that contribute to lap time lost. If you fix that, you naturally pick up pace. We know that if the car and engine are in better shape, then you should go faster. But here, there are so many different elements that come in that it’s very hard to predict whether suddenly you’re fighting for the win again or not.”