2023-10-10 21:46:00
Miami Grand Prix: Daring plan, perfect execution
This is the first big slap inflicted by Max Verstappen on Sergio Pérez. While the two Red Bull drivers are neck and neck in the championship, the Dutchman wins in Florida, starting from ninth on the starting grid and overtaking Checo on the track, although he started on pole.
The day before, in qualifying, “Super Max” found himself trapped by Charles Leclerc’s crash which prevented him from setting a time. He must find a plan to recover. And not let your neighbor in the garage take back control at the head of the World Cup.
Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and the small details that make the difference
Credit: Marko Popovic
After qualifying, the double world champion locks up with his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase to assess the different options. Two possibilities emerge: start with “medium” tires and swap them for “hard” ones around the 20th lap. Or the opposite. In simulations established by Red Bull, the first option is around three seconds faster. This is the one that Pérez is preparing to choose, logically, since he is the pole sitter.
If that’s what you want, then okay
Verstappen, for his part, is rather attracted by the other plan. And, for once, Lambiase is of the same opinion. “We had a very strong opinion on the subject, the Dutchman would later say. The risk was higher because in the event of a puncture or a safety car, the race can become much more difficult. But I was happy to take this bet.”
Christian Horner is not convinced. But he ends up trusting the pair: “If that’s what you want, then fine.” Just before the race, the British leader was questioned about the choice of tires adopted by Verstappen for the start. “He’s going in a Pirelli,” he jokes. No other member of the Top 10, apart from Esteban Ocon, took this risk.
But the bet paid off. In the race, Verstappen took his “hard” tires until the 45th lap with a metronomic pace, while the drivers who started on “medium”, including his teammate, failed to make them work. And even when Pérez abandons them for new hard tires, Verstappen remains the fastest on the track. At the 47th loop, he obliterated the Mexican with disconcerting superiority. A lesson.
Monaco Grand Prix: “The best sector in the history of the Principality”
This is the Grand Prix that everyone has checked off. Particularly Aston Martin. Itching for Red Bull since the start of the season, the team led by Fernando Alonso sees this Monaco meeting as a unique opportunity to pay off Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez. For a simple and good reason: the very special circuit of the Principality appears, on paper, much more favorable to the Spaniard’s car than to that of the Dutchman. But to make this theory a reality, beating the Oranje driver in qualifying is, for obvious reasons, an imperative.
With 52 seconds left in the session, Alonso accomplished his mission. At least, that’s what he thinks after beating local Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) with an astonishing lap in 1’11″449. The Aston Martin garage is already exulting. Especially since during this time, Verstappen is 0″204 behind after two sectors. Closing such a gap in the final stretch seems like a mission impossible. Even for the reigning double world champion…
Vandoorne: “Verstappen does not necessarily have the objective of seeking 8 championship titles”
For the leader of Red Bull, there remains only one solution: achieve a state of flow, become one with his machine and apply, to the extreme, the winning formula in Monaco. Namely, flirting with the rails. The most possible. And guess what? That’s all he’s going to do. Upon entering the Piscine corner, Verstappen tears off a small part of a sponsor’s tarpaulin with his front-right wheel. At the exit, it brushes against the protective barriers so much so that you couldn’t slip a cigarette leaf through it. At La Rascasse, repeat. And at the exit of the last turn, he completely rubs the panels.
I touched a few rails
On the line, it’s a miracle. The Dutchman took pole position by 84 thousandths. In the paddock, several drivers (Bottas, De Vries, Albon) watch, amazed, this moment of magic. “Oh my god,” one of them breathes. “A nice lap,” the pole sitter simply smiles on the radio. “I knew I was behind after the first two sectors,” he told the press. “So I gave everything I had. I touched a few rails, but I’m very happy.”
Pedro de la Rosa, former driver turned ambassador for Aston Martin, can’t believe his eyes. “I looked at the telemetry data because it seemed incredible to me to gain three tenths in the last sector,” he confided, a few days later, in the F1 Nation podcast. “It was surreal. […] Max used every inch of the track.”
“It’s probably one of his best qualifying rounds,” Christian Horner assures Sky Sports. Jolyon Palmer, consultant for F1, goes further. “It’s quite simply the best sector in the history of this circuit.”
Austrian Grand Prix: Stubborn for a point
What is a point worth for a driver with a lead of 69 points after only eight Grands Prix? Probably not much in your eyes. But very dear to those of Max Verstappen. In Spielberg, the Dutchman still appears untouchable. At least, until the penultimate lap…
Obviously not satisfied with having dominated the qualification, the sprint qualification, the sprint and the race, the Dutchman has another idea in mind: he wants at all costs to collect the point for the best lap in the race.
On the Red Bull wall, everyone is well aware that the double world champion is going to tackle it. Everyone imagines, including his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, that the driver is able to achieve this with his current tires, “medium” which he put on on the 49th of the 71 laps of the race.
“Air Max” and Oranje army, Verstappen’s hidden business
But there is still a risk. Since the start of the weekend, the FIA has been uncompromising with track limits. And doing a “qualifying round” to grab an extra point also increases the chances of crossing the white lines…
Whatever. Verstappen even has a more ambitious idea in mind. And he makes it known at the very end of the event on the radio: he wants to return to the pits again to swap his “medium” tires for “soft” ones. This, while his lead over his runner-up Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) is 24 seconds. And that a passage in the pitlane causes you to lose… 20.
Max wouldn’t have slept well…
“We don’t think it’s worth it,” Lambiase retorts. “We have a 24-second lead,” insists the World Cup leader. “These tires won’t do anything better, they’re deteriorating.” The Italian engineer, after discussion with the team bosses, gave in.
At the end of the 69th lap, Verstappen entered the pit lane, putting his mechanics under pressure. The save is perfectly executed. The Dutchman returns to the track with just 4 seconds ahead of his Monegasque rival. In the process, he logically took the fastest lap in the race. One more point in the bag. And new proof that he is the indisputable boss of the team.
“Verstappen doesn’t need to learn, he understands everything directly”: Waché captivated
Asked about this risk-taking at a press conference, the Oranje driver justified himself: “For me, it wasn’t one. The team was perhaps a little more nervous. […] When you have the opportunity to do it, you have to do it. From the outside, it might have looked like a big risk. But when you’re in the car, that’s not the case.”
And when his interlocutor asks him if this round means more than just a point in the World Championship, he responds enigmatically: “Maybe.” For his part, the team’s special advisor Helmut Marko admits that the wall spent a few moments under tension. “We let it happen because we want our pilots to be happy,” he smiles. “Otherwise, Max wouldn’t have slept well.”
Find the other episodes of the series “Verstappen, three-star champion”:
1696978763
#Max #Verstappen #world #champion #Super #Max #details #difference