REIGNING F1 champ Max Verstappen has said he “doesn’t want to think about” the championship, after he was forced to retire from the Australian Grand Prix.
The Dutch racer, 24, had another disastrous race – and was forced to retire for the second time this season.
Before his DNF, Verstappen was sitting comfortably in second place with 20 laps to go.
It means that the Red Bull driver has only finished one race this campaign as he aims to win back-to-back World Championships.
More importantly, he is already 46 points behind championship leader Charles Leclerc in the standings.
“We’re already miles behind so I don’t want to even think about the championship fight at the moment – I think it’s more important to finish races,” Verstappen told Sky Sports when asked how crucial those two DNF’s will be at the end of the season.
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“I mean, of course today was just a bad day in general. Not really having the pace so I was just managing my tyres to just try and bring it to the end.
“It looked like an easy P2 and I knew I could not fight Charles so there was no point to try and put pressure on him.
“But we didn’t even finish the race so it’s pretty frustrating and unacceptable.”
Ahead of the meeting at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Red Bull mechanics were seen giving the car a thorough examination.
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Verstappen revealed there were reliability concerns.
He said: “I knew there was a problem so it was always going to be a question mark of finishing the race.
“I mean these kinds of things, if you want to fight for the title cannot happen.”
Ferrari driver Leclerc won his second Grand Prix of the season after another commanding performance.
Verstappen had trailed Leclerc throughout in second place but a problem with his engine forced his retirement.
That pushed team-mate into Sergio Perez into second place with Mercedes pair benefitting also – George Russell taking a podium place with Lewis Hamilton fourth.
Elsewhere, Sky Sports viewers were given a laugh when F1 pundit Ted Kravitz drank beer from a spectator’s shoe whilst live on air.
