Max Verstappen received his world champion trophy in Rwanda, during the FIA end-of-year gala. For his fourth F1 crown, he admits that the emotion is still the same, and expects to have even more of a challenge next year.
“They’re all different, which makes them special. And for us, it’s been a tough year, so I’m proud to be here and still win the title. And I’m happy that we’re here in a new place” Verstappen said.
“We didn’t have the best middle of the season, we were more competitive at the end of the season. We have to work hard to improve the car, we have a lot of ideas to implement, and we want to fight again for victories. It will be very close with several teams but it will be good for the championship.”
In Rwanda, he also did community service to educate children about motorsport, which was part of the punishment for insulting stewards: “All over the world, everything is getting more and more expensive, so the more you can grow motorsport in your own country, the more affordable you make it for kids.”
“I think it’s great to have this opportunity, and I hope it will inspire all these kids to want to become a racing driver, an engineer or something else in the future. The potential is huge in Africa and I think everyone is working on it…trying to make everyone very enthusiastic.”
“No matter where you come from in the world, anything is possible. That’s why I also think it’s important that we’re here. I’m very excited to see that, hopefully, in five to ten years, there will be more people getting into motorsport on this continent.”
Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the president of the FIA praised the work of Verstappen, who drove on the circuit to show motorsport: “We went together to meet the young people and he really kept his promise. He was there, he was with the young girls and boys who built the rallycross car and then there were also girls in the car, in go-karting.”
“Hundreds of young people. So this is the community service that we need every driver, every champion to do. If we want to grow, if we talk about diversity, this is real diversity.”
He even thinks that this could be voluntary compensation on the part of pilots in the future, to avoid punishment in the case of bad behavior: “He didn’t push the car to its limits, that wasn’t what mattered this time.”
“It was mainly a question of the people present. The young girls and boys that we meet. So I think that perhaps in the future we will not have to apply this sanction, it will have to be a gesture from the pilots, and maybe I’ll put it in the contracts once they have their Superlicence.”
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