12/04/2018
NEWS STORY
With Max Verstappen one of the three drivers picked for today's official press conference it was inevitable that last weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix, and certain comments made in the aftermath, would be on the agenda.
However, despite the best efforts of the British media the youngster refused to rise to the bait.
Asked how he reflects on the incident and whether he has seen it on TV, he smiled and replied: "I was in the car... so I felt it, I saw it!
"That's racing," he continued, "sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. You can say whatever you like about the incident, I think I had a fair shot at it, it was nothing crazy, nothing risky, but unfortunately this time it didn't work out.
"Looking back to Mexico last year, it did work out, but this time maybe we didn't give each other not enough space but that's racing at the end of the day, and like I said, sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad.
Asked if he has spoken to Hamilton since the incident, he said: "No."
Asked if he might now take a more conservative approach, he replied: "It's always important to score points and that's always the target. We are here to finish on the podium, to win races, that's why we're here, that's what we'll try to do again this weekend, So for me there won't be a change."
Despite having seemingly cleared up the matter, he was again asked about Lewis Hamilton's post-race comment and whether he will talk to the Briton about it.
"I might have a talk with him, it depends, if it's really necessary," said the Dutchman.
Similarly, he was again asked about changing his style, he said: "Why should I change something, I don't think I did anything wrong in terms of my approach, I was just trying to overtake a car. It was a fair chance and I went for it... for example, last year in Mexico it could have gone wrong as well, maybe for me, maybe for another car, it's racing, it's very simple. I don't understand why everybody is so on top of the topic because those things happen in racing.
Determined to provoke a reaction, yet again, a British tabloid journalist, raised Hamilton's post-race comments, asking the Red Bull driver why he thought the Briton was moved to criticise him.
"Because it's quite easy, simple, to blame the younger driver,” said Max. “That's the only way I can see it, like I said, these things happen, there's no reason for me to change anything."
Finally, asked about the RB14's competitiveness, he said: "The car is very quick, especially in the race. We know in qualifying we are losing out a bit, just from pure performance in terms of top speed but as soon as that all calms down a bit in the race I think... I was very confident, for example, before the start of the race to still move up a lot of positions because the car was definitely capable of it. We have a good package and there are a lot of promising things coming, so, yeh, ready to go.
Check out our Thursday gallery from Shanghai, here.