Coming off his fifth place finish in the season opening Australian grand Prix, Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen is eagerly looking ahead to this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.
Although he failed to finish here in the last two seasons when racing with the Toro Rosso team, the flying Dutchman is confident that this year’s event will produce a much more pleasing result.
He likes the track and loves the city and can’t wait to get the weekend underway…
Max, you've only had two outings at the Shanghai International Circuit. Both were with Toro Rosso and though the first ended in a lap 53 DNF the second saw you score a couple of points. Is it a circuit you've developed any real opinion about yet?
I always enjoy going back to China as it's a special place and it's a very nice track. I'm just looking forward to going there at this early stage of the season as everything is still very new and nothing has really been decided yet.
One thing we know you have developed an opinion about is the local cuisine. You're quite the fan, aren't you?
The food... I mean, I have good experience of it already in Holland but you always have to try the real stuff when you are in China. I do have to be careful with my diet not to eat too much Chinese though as I really like it. Aside from the food, the culture is pretty cool. The country has a lot of history and I would actually quite like to visit the giant pandas sometime.
What about Bahrain? You nabbed sixth place there last year. Is that a circuit you like?
The Bahrain track is actually very interesting, I like it but it's very hard on the tyres. It turns into a night race, which means the conditions change a lot and the track can become very slippery with all the sand, which [in turn] brings new challenges. The hotel we stay at is very good, it's down by the beach and I also have good experiences of the Bahrain go kart track, so I always look forward to that race weekend.
