BAKU, Azerbaijan -- After throwing away a potential victory at the Chinese Grand Prix two weeks ago, Max Verstappen says he has learned his lesson from Shanghai but denies he is under extra pressure to be more careful this weekend.
While his Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo was creating headlines for all the right reasons in Shanghai, Verstappen faced some difficult questions after he spun off trying to pass Lewis Hamilton and collided with Sebastian Vettel while fighting for position. He apologised to Vettel after the race and vowed to learn from the experience, but says it is not just a case of being more careful in the future.
"I don't think I should approach it like that, because that's the wrong attitude," he told journalists ahead of this weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix. "To just slow yourself down, just to not do anything and drive around, I'm not like that, I'm not here to fill up the field.
"I just want to be myself, you learn from yourself and that doesn't mean you have to drive slower, it actually means you have to drive faster. But maybe with a little bit in control, and that's what I learned."
Asked if he is facing extra pressure this weekend, Verstappen added: "No. I'll just try again."
Verstappen said he had spoken to his father Jos as well as Red Bull boss Helmut Marko after the incident (both of which are former F1 drivers), but believes the learning has to come from within.
"I speak to many people but of course my dad is the main person and I've spoken a lot with Helmut as well, because he understands racing very well. But of course I have to look at myself. At the end of the day, I could speak to a lot of people, but it has to come from me so I have to understand myself. I've always been good at realising what went wrong and stuff and I was always being able to look at the positives from it.
"I think in general in China, the race itself, the start was going very well. I got two cars [at the start], pace was good -- up until the last pit stop everything was going really well. It's also not a big drama what happened in China. The end result is not good, but you also have to look at the strengths and I think the whole season already, pace wise, we have been good. Just the results have not been there yet, but there are only three races gone, 18 more to go."
Verstappen admits he was angry with himself for throwing away his opportunity to win, but said the pace Ricciardo showed by going on to win the race bodes well for this weekend's grand prix in Azerbaijan.
"That was frustrating [seeing Ricciardo win] because I made a mistake, it's the consequence of that," he said. "But it was a good weekend for the team in general, the car was very competitive. Of course we've had a good strategy once everything had unfolded, but I think it's also positive for the future because that was definitely not our ideal track. We were still very competitive.
"Even before the safety car and everything I think the pace in general looks good. I was catching up again to the first two, if I would've passed them that's a different story. But yeah, the pace is there and I think this track [in Baku], last year it was also not too bad [Ricciardo won] and that was with a car, at the time, that was not that competitive. So hopefully we can extract more out of ourselves and the car this weekend and yeah, have a good weekend."
Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Practice 1 - Friday, April 27 - 04.55am - ESPN3
Practice 2 - Friday, April 27 - 08.55am - ESPN3
Practice 3 - Saturday, April 28 - 05.55am - ESPN2
Qualifying - Saturday, April 28 - 08.55am - ESPN2
On The Grid - Sunday, April 29 - 07.30am - ESPN2
Race - Sunday, April 29 - 08.05am - ESPN2
Encore - Sunday, April 29 - 07.30pm - ESPNEWS
Encore - Sunday, April 29 - 10.00pm - ESPN2