Red Bull Racing chief engineer Paul Monaghan believes that Max Verstappen can still improve his racecraft.
Verstappen defended his world title in a confident manner – he won his second championship with four races to go in Japan. Furthermore, he set new records for most race wins and points scored in a season.
“Max is technically extremely gifted. He did a lot of work as a youngster, often guided by his father, and you can see the legacy of that. He knows what he’s talking about within the car, and he knows what he wants,” Monaghan said.
“With his engineers, they know how to deliver a car that he finds nicely-balanced, easy to drive… well, not necessarily easy to drive, but driveable – it looks after its tires well enough that he can manage a situation.”
At the same time, Monaghan thinks that Verstappen can improve even further.
“If you look at his record over the past seasons he’s been with us, it’s stunning. He wouldn’t achieve that if he wasn’t an exceptional driver. And can he improve? Yes, of course, he can. He might not thank me for saying that.
“I think there are areas he can get a little bit better. He’ll dig into himself and think what could he do better for a season, and it’s up to us to give him a car to go and demonstrate those skills.”
