Max Verstappen brushed aside the suggestion that Lewis Hamilton might be a threat at the French Grand Prix as he chose instead to focus upon his own team.
The Dutchman hopes to get back to winning ways this weekend, after being upstaged last time out by Charles Leclerc. Ferrari were the dominant force at the Red Bull Ring, and would most likely have secured a one-two finish had Carlos Sainz not suffered an engine failure.
Throughout the season the Ferrari drivers have been the only real threat to Red Bull, but that might change in the second half of the campaign. Mercedes have been making strides in terms of performance, and have shown impressive reliability all year.
Their improvement has led to suggestions that Hamilton and George Russell might be in the running for the win in France this weekend. Even Red Bull chief Christian Horner admitted Mercedes are "there or thereabouts".
But Verstappen was not interested in hypotheticals when asked about it himself. He told Sky Sports F1: "I don't know, maybe. I don't pay a lot of attention to that. It's more important to first of all get the best out of ourselves because it's not been as straightforward as I would like."
That answer made it clear the Dutchman is still concerned about the performance deficit his car suffered compared to the Ferraris in Austria two weeks ago. Still, he made it clear that he cannot be too unhappy after winning the Sprint and finishing second in the race despite having the inferior car.
"I think we just didn't put the best package of the car on track in Austria – this also caused issues with the tyres," Verstappen added. "I definitely expect us to be more competitive here.
"It's important to score points even when you're not as competitive as you'd like. If that's our 'off-weekend' and we still finish second, obviously with a little bit of luck from Carlos retiring, that's good for us. We have to understand our car a bit better to not make the same mistake. Hopefully we won't do that again."
