Max Verstappen is still in his teenage years, but he has won two world championships so far. The director of Red Bull Racing says the young talent “has no limits” and that he can’t wait to see what else Max does throughout his career. Experts believe the Dutchman has all the tools necessary to become a legend.
Max Verstappen has never looked more like a champion than he does right now. Max is currently leading the championship and as of this moment, he has only been outscored by one driver.
AUSTIN, Texas (KTRK) — Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton were in a different league than the other 18 drivers competing at the United States Grand Prix.
The two championship rivals pushed each other to the limit until the last lap, finishing 40 seconds ahead of the next vehicle on the road, Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez, and crossing the line with just 1.333s separating them.
When it came down to it, any driver might have won the race, but Verstappen simply had the advantage. With five rounds remaining, it’s becoming more and more plausible that a similar narrow margin will determine the title in his favor before the conclusion of the year.
Verstappen’s victory was decisive.
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Mercedes has a theory about where the lap time disappeared over the weekend. In first practice, it used a higher engine mode than its competitors, and the combination of heat and heavy winds in rural Texas highlighted several of the car’s season-long flaws.
But, coming off two great racing weekends in Russia and Turkey, Mercedes team manager Toto Wolff was eager to keep things in perspective and roll with the punches heading into this weekend’s race in the United States.
Toto Wolff, Mercedes team chief, stated, “I believe we have to be cautious in the team that we don’t constantly swing between euphoria and melancholy, but instead eke ahead with our knowledge of the vehicle.”
“There was never a moment when I believed we wouldn’t make it, but it was also crucial not to get too excited after Friday.”
“On Friday, the general consensus was that Mercedes was dominating, and what would Red Bull do about it?” But fast forward 24 hours, and things have turned around.
“So, with the automobile as the product, I believe it is all about fully leveraging the product. How can we fine-tune the product and ensure that it performs as expected? That is going to be the difference between winning and losing.”
Verstappen’s Red Bull made rapid progress while Mercedes battled to get its vehicle tuned in to the circuit during the weekend. But, with the cloud of dependability difficulties looming over every team at this point in the season, he, too, is hesitant to get too excited by Sunday’s victory, hoping that a consistent and concentrated approach will eventually pay off.
He said, “This [finding] doesn’t really alter a lot since it’s all about the details.” “I constantly say that, so a victory doesn’t make me feel any better or anything.”
“We are all confident in our ability to perform a fantastic job as a team, but we need to master the specifics and start again in Mexico to get the most out of our whole package.”
Is it possible that Mercedes squandered a chance to win in Austin?
In the pits, Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes lost the race lead. Getty Images/Mark Thompson
With Hamilton chasing after Verstappen in the closing ten laps, the race seemed to be on the verge of ending in a tie. It’s simple to think that Hamilton might have won if the race had been a few laps longer, but it would be a major disrespect to Verstappen’s precision tyre management during the 56 laps of the United States Grand Prix.
At the start of the race, Hamilton beat Verstappen to the first turn, but he failed to establish enough distance between himself and his championship challenger, prompting Red Bull to stop Verstappen early on lap 10 to undercut the Mercedes. With new tyres on his vehicle, Verstappen was able to pull inside Hamilton’s pit window on his out-lap from the pits, implying that Hamilton would have relinquished the lead even if he had stopped at the end of the next lap.
It was a bold move by Red Bull that gained the race lead for the second stint, which was replicated on lap 29 to win the victory. However, in order for the strategy to succeed, Verstappen had to drive cautiously.
As he pushed hard on the opening circuits to earn the undercut on Hamilton, the performance of his initial set of hard compound tyres swiftly deteriorated in the second stint. With the lead and the lesson learnt, he was significantly more cautious in the last stint of the race, reducing his pace in the quickest bends by a few mph and saving enough tyre life to hold Hamilton at bay when it counted most in the final few laps.
After the race, Wolff commented, “You could see the various strategy [between the teams].” “One went for the undercut out of necessity, which was a really brave move since it was so early [in the race for Verstappen to pit], and then they pitted first again to their benefit the second time.”
“You could see from Max’s driving, especially in the final stint, that he had learnt from his first stint not to destroy the tyres too soon.”
“However, Lewis was also a fantastic driver. He brought the tyre in, kept cool when rejoining from the second stop with 8.5s to Max, brought it in, upped the speed, and there was a tremendous difference at a particular point, and it was perfectly performed.
“It wasn’t quite enough [to catch Verstappen], and who knows what would have happened if we had two more laps. But it is what it is, and Red Bull must be commended for their plan.”
Despite the fact that it seemed to be a masterpiece from the outside, Horner acknowledged the team was second-guessing their approach from the pit wall.
“Well… no!” Horner answered when asked whether Verstappen always had the race under control.
“At one point, we considered a three-stop, and we looked at what it would entail and where it would place us at the conclusion of the race.” However, we would have lost up track position, so we elected to continue with track position and preserve the tyres, allowing Lewis to catch up rapidly and then, of course, he was in the foul air.
“Max handled things really well, because in a race like that, there’s a lot of pressure.”
Mercedes was better than Red Bull on the hard compound tyre used by both drivers in the second and final stints of the race, but its troubles on the medium compound in the opening stint meant it lacked the confidence to put that strength to use and defeat Red Bull at its own game.
“Really, the option to win the race came down to holding the lead following Lewis’s excellent start by stopping sooner than Max,” said Mercedes head race engineer Andrew Shovlin. “That would have required pitting as early as lap eight, but given how badly we struggled on the mediums on such a short stint, we would never have been courageous enough to do that since it would have seemed as if we were going to jeopardize the whole race.”
“As it turned out, we could have gone for an early stop and finished, but it would have meant squeezing the trigger early and hoped for the best to see if Lewis could hold Max at bay. That was the only chance I had.”
Red Bull and Verstappen have the upper hand.
At the next two races, Red Bull is likely to be the team to beat. Getty Images/Jared C. Tilton
The U.S. Grand Prix, with five races remaining and a 12-point lead in the title, might be the deciding factor in Verstappen’s championship triumph.
Mercedes has been in the lead since the Hungarian Grand Prix in August, with the exception of the Dutch Grand Prix, which he dominated, and Verstappen may count himself fortunate not to have dropped more points in the two races previous to Austin, in Russia and Turkey. Verstappen has emerged as the obvious winner of the previous three rounds after coming through those two races with a net advantage and then adding six points to his lead in Austin.
Furthermore, the following two races, in Mexico City and Brazil, are projected to favor the Honda engine in the Red Bull over the Mercedes power unit in Hamilton’s vehicle due to the high altitude.
Because there is less oxygen in the air to burn in the engine’s combustion chamber as altitude rises, the turbocharger in the power unit must work harder to compensate. Honda and Renault have witnessed less of a loss in performance at high altitude in recent years than Mercedes and Ferrari, which is thought to be due to the complexity of their turbo design. According to the argument, Honda’s compressor can safely operate at faster speeds than its competitors, pushing more air into the combustion chamber, resulting in more power.
Despite having a severe performance loss in most other races, the advantage has been enough to assist Red Bull (who utilized Renault engines between 2015 and 2018 and Honda engines in 2019) out-qualify Mercedes in Mexico for the last three years. And in a year when the competition at the front is so well matched, such a lead might be even more significant, with Mercedes quietly expecting to be on the backfoot in Mexico from the start.
Red Bull, on the other hand, has a history of championship run-ins, having won four consecutive championships between 2010 and 2013, and Horner is keen not to take anything for granted.
“You have to throw the formbook away,” he said. “It’s a close race between the top two teams, and I’m hoping Mexico will be a good track for us, but it has been a good track for them in the past.”
“There are five races left and another 130 points up for grabs, and we only have a 12-point advantage [in the drivers’ standings].” It’s fantastic to have extended the lead today, because with ten laps to go, it seemed like we’d be a point or two behind, so extending the lead is a fantastic result, and we’ve got some significant races coming up.
“However, 12 points is nothing, and as we’ve seen before, they may go very rapidly.” As a result, we must continue to tackle race weekends as we have in the past in order to get the most out of them.
“With barely five minutes left, the pressure mounts.”
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