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Max Verstappen has praised the chassis of his Toro Rosso STR10, believing it to be second best only to Mercedes.
Toro Rosso is currently eighth in the Constructors' championship but the Dutch rookie believes that the squad is having to heavily compromise its chassis in order to accommodate its lack of power.
"Behind the Mercedes," Verstappen said, when asked to rank Toro Rosso's chassis. "When you have a fast engine, your chassis gets better as well. You sometimes go over the limit a bit, trying to gain one or two hundredths that you will lose anyway on the straights."
Verstappen says that making up for the lack of power from Renault's power unit significantly compromises the squad.
"It compromises everything, because we have to take off our strong point, which is downforce. It’s quite difficult for us, especially at tracks like Canada and Austria, it was not so easy to find the right balance.
"It’s a bit more difficult for us, because for Mercedes it doesn’t matter if they run a bit less or a bit more, they are faster down the straights."
