Max Verstappen described his pole position at the Qatar Grand Prix as “a miracle” after he managed to bounce back from a poor Sprint race. Red Bull was not competitive in the Sprint as Verstappen finished eighth and was unable to catch Nico …
Max Verstappen described his pole position at the Qatar Grand Prix as “a miracle” after he managed to bounce back from a poor Sprint race.
Red Bull was not competitive in the Sprint as Verstappen finished eighth and was unable to catch Nico Hulkenberg over the shorter race distance, leading him to say he needed a miracle to be competitive in qualifying. However, the four-time world champion was in the mix at the front of the field throughout Saturday night’s session and took pole by 0.055s from George Russell on his final lap.
“I mean, it couldn’t have been worse [in the Sprint] so we just looked at it,” Verstappen said. “It’s not all super clear, but we’re like, well, we have to go and try this direction. We put it on the car and it worked.
“There are a lot of people back at the factory analyzing a lot of stuff already throughout the whole weekend. But at the end of the day, you have to make the decisions on track if you want to do it or not. [The] simulator is running in the background as well, and yeah, a miracle happened!
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“I did think that maybe we could improve the car a little bit, but not like this, that’s for sure.
“It just felt a bit more hooked up on entry, mid-corner, like everything that was bad before improved quite a lot. I felt it straight away from lap one that it all just felt a bit more consistent. That’s exactly what we needed to be a bit more competitive.”
Despite the step forward, Verstappen says the race performance in the Sprint was so poor that he is still not certain of how competitive Red Bull will be on Sunday.
“It’s still a bit of a question mark,” he said. “I did feel that yesterday we were not too far off in qualifying, and then I felt like we were quite far off in the Sprint. So this is great, to be on pole, but I’m not sure yet if it’s going to be enough to really be the outright fastest, but we’ll find out tomorrow.”
Max Verstappen is poised to start the Qatar Grand Prix from pole position – his first since June’s Austrian Grand Prix – after edging George Russell to top spot in Lusail. The Dutchman, however, in under investigation for traveling too slowly on a …
Max Verstappen is poised to start the Qatar Grand Prix from pole position — his first since June’s Austrian Grand Prix — after edging George Russell to top spot in Lusail. The Dutchman, however, in under investigation for traveling too slowly on a preparation lap and appearing to impede Russell, who was also preparing to set a fast lap. The “super dangerous” incident, as the Mercedes driver described it, could yet incur the four-time champion a grid penalty.
Russell had held provisional pole after the first laps of Q3, but the qualifying session ended in unusual conditions, with most drivers struggling to improve with their final laps as grip suddenly appeared to desert the circuit.
Russell completed his final tour without improving his time, a slow middle sector undermining his effort. That left him vulnerable to Verstappen, who was only 0.045s behind him in the order. The Red Bull Racing driver, revitalized after changes made in the hours following his lackluster Sprint race, was one of the few drivers to find meaningful gains, improving by 0.1s to move into pole position.
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“Crazy,” he said. “Honestly, I also didn’t expect that, but well done to the team to give me a car that feels a bit more connected.
“Once the car’s a bit more together, you can also push harder. It felt a lot better out there. I hope of course it lasts tomorrow in the race — I don’t know that yet.”
Russell — for whom second place is his third consecutive front row start in a grand prix, said his 0.55s defeat and failure to improve could have been down to the incident with Verstappen on a preparation lap that sent him off the road to avoid crashing with the slow-moving Red Bull Racing car.
“I ended up going through the gravel,” he said. “It felt like the floor was scraping through the curb and the gravel. Maybe that’s why we didn’t improve, I don’t know.”
McLaren, fresh from one-two in the Sprint earlier in the evening, locked out the second row, Lando Norris 0.252s off pole and 0.057s ahead of Oscar Piastri.
“Not the position we were hoping for after yesterday and today but the maximum we could do for sure,” Norris said. “I was pretty happy with the lap, just not quick enough compared to the others.”
Charles Leclerc qualified fifth ahead of Lewis Hamilton in sixth. Carlos Sainz was seventh fastest but faces an investigation of his own for being released unsafely from pit lane ahead of Hamilton.
Fernando Alonso set just one representative flying lap in Q3 to qualify eighth ahead of Sergio Perez, who bounced back from his bottom-five knockout in Sprint qualifying for his third top-10 appearance in the last six races.
Kevin Magnussen completed the top 10 for Haas. Pierre Gasly missed out on what would have been his fourth Q3 appearance in the last five grands prix by just 0.012s, incidentally saving Perez from another embarrassing top-10 miss.
Zhou Guanyu led teammate Valtteri Bottas to 12th and 13th in Sauber’s first double-Q2 appearance of the season since the Spanish Grand Prix and only its second of the season. It was also the second consecutive grand prix for which Zhou outqualified Bottas and just the third time all year.
Yuki Tsunoda was knocked out of qualifying 14th ahead of Lance Stroll in 15th.
Alex Albon will line up 16th after falling 0.026s short of a berth in Q2. Liam Lawson, who qualified 10th for the sprint, followed in 17th.
Nico Hulkenberg was a surprise Q1 knockout just hours after scoring two points for seventh in the Sprint. Radio from the Haas pit wall subsequently suggested the German didn’t have full battery deployment for being in the wrong state-of-charge mode.
Franco Colapinto qualified 19th, one up from his sprint qualifying result but now just 0.204s slower than his teammate, while Esteban Ocon qualified his un-upgraded Alpine last and 0.871s slower than teammate Gasly, who is benefitting from using a new front wing this weekend.
Lando Norris has suggested Max Verstappen “should start doing comedy” after the newly crowned world champion said he would have won the title earlier in a McLaren. Verstappen secured his fourth drivers’ championship in a row in Las Vegas last …
Lando Norris has suggested Max Verstappen “should start doing comedy” after the newly crowned world champion said he would have won the title earlier in a McLaren.
Verstappen secured his fourth drivers’ championship in a row in Las Vegas last weekend, and when interviewed afterwards he said he thought he would have won the title even earlier in a McLaren this season, and similarly so in a Ferrari. However, Norris gave the idea short shrift when the comments were put to him ahead of this weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix, where McLaren can win the constructors’ title.
“He should start doing comedy or something,” Norris said. “He can say whatever he wants. Of course, I completely disagree, as I would. He’s good, but, yeah, it’s not true.”
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Despite disputing Verstappen’s claim, Norris said the fact that Sergio Perez hasn’t ever seriously challenged him doesn’t necessarily help the Dutchman’s chances.
“There’s pros and cons,” he said. “He has to do all his work on his own, which is hats off to him. He doesn’t have someone who’s pushing him; he doesn’t have someone who’s trying other things with the car and you can’t do A to B tests and things like that, because the data’s not as valuable when you don’t have someone who is performing at the same level.
“So there’s a lot of things that Max can do that are phenomenal. Driving at the level he does consistently without a teammate that can push him in any way certainly makes his life harder from that perspective. Also from a team perspective.
“But at the same time, there is no pressure — he doesn’t have to deal with trying to beat someone in his own team and that comes with some comfort. But they go together and in some ways I like having a bit of pressure because it makes me do a better job. I’m sure he’s going to say he doesn’t care, whoever his teammate is he’s not going to mind. There’s pros and cons of having a strong teammate and I hope at some point he has one that can challenge him a bit more.”
Norris believes Red Bull would have done the championship double if Perez was able to perform closer to Verstappen’s level, rather than opening the door for McLaren to be favorite with two races to go.
“Red Bull probably would have won the constructors’ if they had two drivers as good as Max, that’s for sure,” he said. “That’s clear. That’s obvious. It shows that as a team they’ve still probably done the best job.
“Max has proved with everybody that he’s gone up against, he’s beaten. That’s tough for any teammate. It’s got nothing to do with me. I don’t care. He can have any teammate he wants.”
Dominance doesn’t always breed a true appreciation of what someone has achieved, but Max Verstappen’s latest drivers’ title has got to be viewed as something special. Verstappen could already claim a place among the very best in Formula 1 history, …
Dominance doesn’t always breed a true appreciation of what someone has achieved, but Max Verstappen’s latest drivers’ title has got to be viewed as something special.
Verstappen could already claim a place among the very best in Formula 1 history, but his fourth world championship moves him into even greater company, joining Alain Prost, Sebastian Vettel, Juan Manuel Fangio, Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton with four or more titles.
Of those, only Prost did not win four in a row, showing how the best drivers have managed to capitalize when they have machinery capable of putting them in the fight. But where Verstappen’s success really stands out this year is within the context of Red Bull’s season.
Currently third in the constructors’ championship — and looking increasingly likely to stay there — is set to create a scenario where Verstappen becomes just the third driver in history to win a drivers’ championship when driving for a team that finishes outside the top two positions.
Of the two previous occasions, 1982 was a remarkable year that delivered Keke Rosberg a championship with just one victory. On that occasion, his Williams team finished fourth overall but was just 16 points adrift of champions Ferrari, with 15 per weekend on offer.
One season later, Nelson Piquet took the crown driving for Brabham, when his team ended up third in the constructors’, 17 points behind Ferrari.
Even if Red Bull gains a position over the final two rounds, only 11 times has a driver won the title when their team hasn’t taken the constructors’ crown, so it’s a rare achievement that should not be overlooked.
But I don’t mind admitting that it was easy to do so in the early part of the year. The familiarity of Verstappen winning races meant there wasn’t always the same scrutiny over each victory as there can be with hindsight now.
Take Imola, for example, where Verstappen won his fifth race from the first seven rounds. He was denied the chance to succeed in Melbourne due to a reliability issue, so you could view it as five wins from six finishes, with the only blemish being his second place behind Lando Norris in Miami.
We weren’t used to consistent McLaren challenges at that point, but each race pays the same 25 points for finishing first and Imola was an important one. After an impressive pole lap, Verstappen was cruising in the first part of the race, but then Norris came back at him as the McLaren proved itself to be a stronger car on the hard compound tire.
By Imola in May, Verstappen’s car advantage was ebbing, but he still held off Norris’s McLaren for the win. Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Verstappen was unflappable and just managed to keep Norris at bay to take the win, but had Norris got the better of him on that occasion then entering this weekend the gap between the two would have been 48 points instead of 62. Or 30 points prior to his stunning drive to win in Interlagos.
History would never play out identically, of course, but there were more occasions were Verstappen either held Norris off — think Canada, Spain or Circuit of The Americas — or ensured he did not give up significant points to the McLaren when he didn’t have the car to win.
Zandvoort and Singapore spring to mind where Norris and McLaren were in a different league to Verstappen and Red Bull, but second place in each of those races helped protect a championship advantage that then ensured Norris could not afford a result such as Brazil.
It’s a very different way of winning a championship compared to the previous three, where Verstappen never faced multiple threats on a consistent basis. This year there have been times he’s had to navigate McLaren, Ferrari and even Mercedes offering stern challenges, and he’s turned that into an opportunity to defend his lead more often than losing significant points.
While his rivals often had the advantage in the second half of the year, Verstappen kept his cool and delivered the finishes he needed behind them. Mark Thompson/Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
A year ago, Verstappen celebrated a third title in a row after a Sprint race in Qatar, in one of the must underwhelming championship finishes imaginable. He couldn’t even celebrate in style with a grand prix to tackle the next day, and there wasn’t ever a serious challenger to his throne.
This time, the setting could not be more different.
In Las Vegas on a Saturday night, the stage was set for a party. Verstappen knew that simply beating Norris would be enough, and he also knew that he didn’t have the car to win the race.
For all of his aggressive tendencies, Verstappen sometimes doesn’t get enough credit for the way he approaches races that he can’t triumph in. Think back to Zandvoort or Singapore, when he offered little fight against Norris because of the McLaren’s far superior pace on those tracks. He finished second at both, maximizing his own return and not doing anything to jeopardize that.
Again on Saturday night, he played it safe at times knowing what would be enough. Norris was behind him and not able to pose a threat, so when Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz closed in, his defense was restrained at best.
Even Charles Leclerc’s later dive to the inside of Turn 14 was not met with Verstappen offering to cover that line, even though he’s shown on multiple occasions in the past that he loves to take control of the apex and be able to dictate what happens to the car on his outside.
Time to celebrate a job well done. Mark Thompson/Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Verstappen spoke of his relief that the championship was secure when he crossed the line, such has been the difficulties Red Bull has faced this season. But it was Red Bull’s Helmut Marko who offered an insightful take on what makes this title in particular one that elevates him beyond where he stood before.
“He’s for sure one of the greatest, because it’s always difficult to compare between periods,” Marko told me. “But don’t forget he’s 27 years old, and he developed unbelievably. He uses his head if necessary, he showed who is the master of the game in Brazil, and he’s also a leader now.
“We had some troubles in the team, which is known, and he was part of the solution and sticking together, saying, ‘Hello, let’s work together and win the title.’
“That’s what made it even more difficult. After the first races we thought, ‘Ah fine, it keeps going like ’23, and then all of a sudden… We woke up too late, because the weaknesses of the car were not shown up because of his brilliance.”
Las Vegas was a microcosm of almost all of Marko’s points, as Verstappen used his head to get the job done and secure a title that just two weeks ago looked to be in real jeopardy.
It might have been Red Bull that woke up too late this season, but with a beer in hand as he faced the media in the early hours of Sunday morning, it’ll be Verstappen who is likely to be tardy getting up in Las Vegas. And he’s more than earned it.
Max Verstappen says his first emotion was relief when he crossed the line to secure the drivers’ championship at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Fifth place was enough for Verstappen in Las Vegas as he finished ahead of Lando Norris, confirming a fourth …
Max Verstappen says his first emotion was relief when he crossed the line to secure the drivers’ championship at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Fifth place was enough for Verstappen in Las Vegas as he finished ahead of Lando Norris, confirming a fourth consecutive title with two rounds remaining. His first championship was won on the final lap in Abu Dhabi in 2021 before two that were certainties much earlier in the season, but the different nature of 2024 — when he raced into a comfortable lead early on but then had to defend it — evoked a different response for the Dutchman.
“Every championship has actually been very different in emotions,” Verstappen said. “It will never top the emotions of the first one, because that is what you set out to do, and that’s your ultimate dream and goal to win one. So that was massive elation.
“But then this season has been very different to the second one and last year’s one. And that’s, I think, very beautiful, because if they’re all fairly similar, that’s not as exciting. Honestly, when I crossed the line, I was just very relieved. I was like, ‘It’s over.’ It’s been a tough run of races and I’m very happy that it rained in Brazil!”
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Verstappen knows he is likely to face an even more stern challenge in 2025 given the form in the second half of this year, but he says Red Bull’s response to adversity has been something that convinces him his success can continue.
“What I know is that the team doesn’t give up,” he said. “There are a lot of very competent people and I really enjoy working with them. I know it’s been tough for them as well, there was a lot of pressure on them this year. And when you come out of a season like last year, where basically we broke every record, and then at one point you start to struggle with the car and you don’t really seem to understand what is going on or what is going wrong. It’s important to remain calm and try to fix it.
“Every person in the team has their own emotions that you have to deal with. So in a way, it’s also people management, because everyone reacts a little bit different to good results or bad results. But that’s something that I enjoy as well, because everyone has their own character but we all have to work together to the same end goal.
“I’m very proud of how everyone stuck together in those very tough races where we came out a bit lost. We got back at the factory, there were a lot of analyses going on, and just the response from that… I think when we went to Austin, after really understanding our issues from Monza, to see already an upturn in performance and a lot of ideas for next year [gave me confidence].
“A few things we couldn’t change anymore this year, so that is something for next year. I just hope that that makes the car more drivable, in general more competitive. But I also, of course, know that the other ones are not sitting still. So next year is going to be a big battle, but even when you’re not the quickest, if you just keep maximizing those results, a lot is possible.”
Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali described Max Verstappen as “a true great” after his fourth drivers’ championship was confirmed at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Verstappen finished one place ahead of Lando Norris in Saturday’s race to secure a fourth …
Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali described Max Verstappen as “a true great” after his fourth drivers’ championship was confirmed at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Verstappen finished one place ahead of Lando Norris in Saturday’s race to secure a fourth title in a row, as he now takes an unassailable lead into the final two rounds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Domenicali — who worked with Michael Schumacher at Ferrari earlier in his career — says the Dutchman’s achievements put him in elite company at just 27 years old.
“I want to congratulate Max on an incredible season and his fourth world title,” Domenicali said. “He is a true great of this sport and has so much more to look forward to in his impressive career. This season has been thrilling and 2025 looks set to be even closer. Congratulations Max and congratulations to all the team at Red Bull.”
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Domenicali’s comments were echoed by Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, who said Verstappen outperformed his car in the latter stages of this season as Red Bull has become less competitive.
“He’s a deserving champion,” Wolff said. “It was clear that he was one of the great ones before the year already, and now (he’s) a four-time world champion.
“He dominated in the first half of the year — domination of the driver, domination of the car — and then in the second half of the season, domination of the driver. And absolutely, he is a worthy four-time Formula 1 world champion.”
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said Verstappen’s level of consistency is one of his most impressive traits, securing championships both with the best car and with one that looks set to finish third in the constructors’ standings.
“I think definitely at the end of this weekend in Vegas, even as a team, we want to spend a few words on Max,” Stella said. “Let me express my congratulations to Max Verstappen – four world championships in a row and I think this title confirms that Max is one of the best drivers in the history of Formula 1.
“And it’s also an important one for him, because possibly in the past — like last year — people might have thought that it’s easy to win races when you have the best car, but it’s never easy to win so consistently. There’s always so many reasons why things can go wrong.
“So I think already last year they were operating — driver and team — at a very high level, but this year when often he didn’t have the best car, what he could extract from weekends in which he didn’t have the best material confirms that we are in the era of Max Verstappen in these few last years and he deserves what he is achieving.”
Max Verstappen has won a fourth consecutive world championship after finishing fifth at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, won by a rampaging George Russell in a shock Mercedes one-two finish. Russell aced his start from pole position to fend off the Ferrari …
Max Verstappen has won a fourth consecutive world championship after finishing fifth at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, won by a rampaging George Russell in a shock Mercedes one-two finish.
Russell aced his start from pole position to fend off the Ferrari drivers at the first turn, with Charles Leclerc jumping from fourth to second beneath Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz to emerge as the Briton’s closest challenger.
The Monegasque wasted no time challenging for what had been expected to be a straightforward Ferrari victory. By lap 3 he was battling Russell side-by-side into the final chicane and then through the final sector before being forced to concede from the outside line into the first corner.
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A Leclerc lead appeared inevitable, but his duel with Russell had been toxic to his tires. Almost immediately his Pirelli rubber began to grain, and his pace rapidly devolved to almost 2s slower than Russell’s headline pace.
Sainz passed him easily, and Max Verstappen, up from fifth on the grid, made easy work of Leclerc too, the Red Bull driver emerging as an unexpected leader after a weekend of struggle, leaving vanquished title rival Norris in his dust.
The Ferrari drivers made early pit stops to move onto the favored hard tire, leaving Verstappen and Russell to size each other up in the battle for the lead, with 6.3s between them after their first pit stops.
There was no real competition, however. Despite expectations the Mercedes car wouldn’t have the race pace to got he distance, Russell never wilted in the lead. His pace was strong and consistent, and by lap 17 he had more than 10s on Verstappen, his victory all but assured.
Verstappen was content to play a supporting role in the race, giving way to the Ferraris but keeping enough in hand to ensure the title. Andy Hone/Motorsport Images
Verstappen’s focus instead had to turn to behind, where Lewis Hamilton was exhibiting similarly sizzling pace despite starting 10th.
Hamilton made up no places off the line but rose into the lead as the front-runners made their pit stops, giving him a chance to exercise his car’s virtues. His pit stop dropped him to net sixth behind Norris and within easy reaching distance of the podium.
Norris, who struggled badly with graining all weekend, was no match for Hamilton, and both Ferrari drivers came quickly into view afterwards as well.
Ferrari was caught in a strategic bind, unsure whether the race would unfold with one stop or two. By the time the team realized that one set of hard tires wouldn’t make it to the end, Hamilton was within undercut range, Mercedes pulling the trigger on lap 27.
Sainz and Leclerc followed him on subsequent laps, but it did them no good, the place lost to the rapid Mercedes.
Only Verstappen stood in Hamilton’s way of a Mercedes one-two, though the Dutchman was circumspect about his mission. Needing only to finish ahead of Norris to seal the championship, he put up no real fight ahead of his faster 2021 title rival on lap 31.
Russell made his final pit stop on the next lap but easily held the lead, and though Hamilton closed quickly on him, his margin was too large to be overcome, and he took the checkered flag a 7.3s victor.
“It’s been a dream of a weekend,” he said. “I don’t know how we’ve been so quick, but I’m just riding this wave right now.
“To get a victory here, pole position, a dominant weekend, one-two with Lewis as well – we couldn’t have chosen a better place to make this happen.”
Hamilton said on Friday night that his botched qualifying performance that left him 10th on the grid killed any hope of winning the race, but he was enthused by his comeback on a rare strong night for Mercedes.
“If I’d done my job yesterday, it would’ve been a breeze today,” he said. “But it’s OK. I had fun coming from 10th.
“The team did a fantastic job. We don’t know why we were so quick this weekend, but that’s the best the car’s ever felt, so I’m grateful to have been a part of it.”
Verstappen’s control of the podium slipped away as the race wore on, with Ferrari finally finding its expected groove late in the final stint.
Again he was only minimally defensive, with Norris almost 20s further back in sixth. Sainz scythed onto the podium down the back straight with DRS on lap 41, while Leclerc made it a Ferrari three-four with three laps remaining.
“It was a bit of a shock,” Sainz said of his car’s lack of pace. “The mediums I was expecting to be quite strong on, but they lasted eight or nine laps. From then onwards it was just a damage limitation race.
“I was not comfortable with the car, not strong today. We just simply didn’t have it in ourselves today. We came back with P3, a podium that’s not enough for what we expected but the maximum that we could achieve today.”
The moves left Verstappen fifth, but with Norris in a distant sixth behind him, it was all he needed to seal his fourth consecutive world championship.
“Oh my god, what a season!” he exclaimed over radio. “Thank you, guys.”
“It’s been a long season,” he said. “Of course we started off amazing, it was almost like a cruise, but then we had a tough run but as a team we kept it together, we kept working on improvements, and we pulled over the line. I’m incredibly proud of everyone, what they’ve done for me,
“Standing here as a four-time world champion of course is something that I never thought was possible. At the moment I’m just feeling relieved in a way but also very proud.”
Norris made a late pit stop for fresh tires to pinch the bonus point for fastest lap on the final tour, reducing the damage done to McLaren’s constructors title lead to maintain a 24-point advantage over Ferrari.
Teammate Oscar Piastri followed him home in seventh ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, whose four points moved Haas back up to sixth in the constructors championship ahead of Alpine, which ended the day scoreless after third-place starter Pierre Gasly retired with a power unit problem.
Yuki Tsunoda and Sergio Perez finished in the final points-paying places.
Max Verstappen wins the 2024 Formula 1 championship in Las Vegas, earning his fourth straight world title with Red Bull.
[autotag]Max Verstappen[/autotag] may not have won Formula 1’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, but he has claimed something even more prestigious. On Sunday morning, Verstappen finished in fifth place in Las Vegas but won the 2024 Formula 1 championship after Lando Norris finished in sixth place. It is the Red Bull driver’s fourth straight world title.
Verstappen’s fourth Formula 1 championship comes with two races left in the 2024 season. Red Bull likely won’t claim the Constructors’ Championship, but a fourth straight Driver’s Championship is just as important. In 2023, Verstappen cruised to his third championship with 19 race wins, which is a monster number compared to his eight victories in 2024 to this point.
It’s clear that Verstappen will go down as one of Formula 1’s greatest drivers, but it remains to be seen how much more he can accomplish. Red Bull has admittedly lost a step compared to its previous success, but the driver of the No. 1 car is still the most talented on the grid. Verstappen can now call himself a four-time champion, and it likely won’t be the last one.
Max Verstappen says Red Bull throws away two weekends a season by not developing a low-drag rear wing, after qualifying fifth for the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Red Bull has been losing time to its rivals on the straights in Las Vegas, having admitted …
Max Verstappen says Red Bull throws away two weekends a season by not developing a low-drag rear wing, after qualifying fifth for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Red Bull has been losing time to its rivals on the straights in Las Vegas, having admitted that the rear wing it has at its disposal is not well suited to the high-speed circuit. Verstappen qualified fifth but was nearly half a second off George Russell, and he says the rear wing approach is proving too costly for his liking.
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“No, we opted to not make one,” Verstappen said. “We don’t have one. So this is already (the case) from 2022. I think we just never thought that we would run it that low (downforce). And then with the budget cap, you choose your priorities and we shifted that.
“Would I have liked to have a lower wing, a lower-downforce wing? Yeah, for sure, or at least a different shape, more efficient shape. It’s something that we’ll look at. But on the other hand, there’s only one more year left with these rules and I don’t know if it makes sense.
“But for me at least, it feels a bit like we throw away two race weekends like this. We should definitely lose too much on the straights.”
The championship leader says it’s not just the straight-line deficit that is costing Red Bull, however, as he didn’t feel it was gaining on its rivals through the corners either.
“In the corners and on the straights (time is being lost). We know that with our wing you lose top speed, especially with the DRS open. It’s a bit of a handicap, we knew that,” he said. “That’s something we have to deal with on a track like this, a track like Monza.
“Besides that, I always felt like the tires were a bit of a struggle for us to get them in the right operating window. I do think that we did the best we could in qualifying with what we had, and then P5 is the result.
“We got a bit lucky of course with Lewis [Hamilton] not putting a lap in, otherwise it would have been P6. I think we really maximized what we could.”
Verstappen believes he will be able to get ahead of Pierre Gasly on Saturday night but fears the other three cars starting ahead of him will be out of reach. With the ability to win a fourth drivers’ championship on Saturday, Verstappen says the big question mark is the form of McLaren.
“Hopefully of course I can fight with an Alpine. I don’t think at the moment I can fight with Ferrari or Mercedes, they’re being too quick,” he said. “And of course Lewis [Hamilton] is starting P10, so he will move forward.
“With McLaren, I don’t know. Both of us were struggling a bit in the long run. But they made some changes, we made some changes, so we have to wait and see how that will go.”
While Verstappen felt he at least maximized his qualifying result, teammate Sergio Perez dropped out in Q1 and says his struggles with the car distract him from focusing on maximizing his own performance.
“I think we’ve got a fundamental issue at the moment with the car that is just not working for me,” Perez said. “It’s where the whole brain is going, to try and fix it up instead of being compromising, and at the moment, we come to the weekends and we just explore a lot of things, and it’s just difficult to make it work.
“It’s obviously not ideal. You want to be up there, especially as I know what I can do. But when you don’t have that grip underneath you, then it’s really hard, and you’re prone to a lot of mistakes and so on.”
Max Verstappen says he can’t believe he won the Sao Paulo Grand Prix from so far back on the grid after a sensational recovery drive on Sunday. Qualifying took place on Sunday morning and Verstappen was knocked out in Q2 due to the timing of a late …
Max Verstappen says he can’t believe he won the Sao Paulo Grand Prix from so far back on the grid after a sensational recovery drive on Sunday.
Qualifying took place on Sunday morning and Verstappen was knocked out in Q2 due to the timing of a late red flag when Lance Stroll crashed. With a five-place grid penalty for exceeding power unit components already in place, Verstappen had to start from 17th, and while two cars ahead of him didn’t take the start he was still supreme in climbing through the field and then going on to win by almost 20 seconds.
“My emotions today have been a roller coaster,” Verstappen said. “With qualifying being really unlucky with the red flag, starting P17, I knew that would be a tough race but we stayed out of trouble, we made the right calls, we stayed calm and we were fine. So all of these things together make that result possible but I think it’s unbelievable to win here from so far back on the grid.
“My emotions today have been from almost trying to destroy the garage to winning the race. I mean, starting P17… I knew that we could have a good race, but in qualifying, I think it was quite clear that there was only one line that you could take. So I knew that overtaking was going to be quite tough.
“We had a good start. That helped already. We had a good first lap. From there, we just picked off a few drivers here and there. Then I got a little bit stuck behind the train of Yuki [Tsunoda], I think. Then we just stayed calm. It was still a very long race, naturally. We made the right calls.
“When some pitted, the rain was coming, we stayed out. which was very sketchy. And then I saw Esteban [Ocon] in front of me flying, like four seconds a lap faster and I was like, ‘I’m just happy to keep the car on the track.’
“At one point it was just red, like we needed a red flag. It was just undriveable, even on extreme tires, it would have not been possible because of the banking of the track here, you know — it’s filling up very quickly and it almost felt like I was driving a boat.”
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A number of Verstappen’s moves were made into Turn 1 early in the race and he says he knew it would be crucial to his hopes to be decisive trying to overtake and get himself into contention.
“It’s very hard to pass around here with the new tarmac — there’s only one line you can take but I just knew I had to go for it. It’s of course easier if you’re at the front to try and balance that out and I had confidence on the brakes, that helps.
“I was just very motivated to get a good race and just let the race pan out and see what happens. Because in a wet race, always some crazy things can happen. But soon, I was passing a few cars, and when I had one lap or two laps of free air, I was always the fastest on the track. So, I knew that, ‘OK, we are quick, I just need to try and pass the guys to try and have a run to the front.’ I felt comfortable in the car. I feel comfortable in the wet anyway, but then when the car is also performing, it just doubles up and you can really pick up the pace.”
