The priority today is the championship standings. For Max Verstappen, the United States Grand Prix was a clear success, after four weekends where he consistently lost points to his only rival in the quest for his fourth world title, Lando Norris. Max Verstappen managed to finish the Austin weekend with a +5 in his favor. There are also five races left in the season, and the 57-point lead is starting to be enough to allow for a conservative approach.
The third place in Austin was so valuable that it was celebrated like a victory. As has been the case since the beginning of the summer, yesterday’s podium was more Verstappen than Red Bull. At the start of the race, Max was the perfect hunter, ready to take the space left naively open by Norris at the braking zone of Turn 1. Then, fifteen laps from the end, he became the defender, widening his stance to fend off the McLaren’s comeback. Norris had more pace, as the real-time simulations from his team had predicted, but what numbers still can’t comprehend (with all due respect to artificial intelligence) is that when you get behind Verstappen, overtaking is never simple.
At the end of the race, McLaren made it clear, not so subtly, that they did not agree with the decision by the race stewards to penalize Norris with five seconds, but everything will remain as decided under the checkered flag. For Verstappen, it was an intense race with moments as exhausting as they were thrilling.
When he switched from medium to hard tires, his car began to understeer more and more, and Max (after a quick exchange with his race engineer Giampiero Lambiase) understood that everything would be in his hands, with no possible help from the team. He rolled up his sleeves, and when the silhouette of the McLaren appeared in his mirrors, the mistake under pressure came, but not from Max.
“We have a lot of experience,” commented Helmut Marko. “I remember well when in 2009 we had the fastest car on track, and I think also the best driver, but that season we didn’t win the championship because we made too many mistakes. Having lived through certain situations helps, and our entire team has experience in world title showdowns. And then Max… is Max, another great performance, but by now we’re used to it.” “Today was a very big step,” he continued. “We improved in qualifying, and in the sprint race, we were competitive, although I have to say that without the battle between Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, Saturday’s result would have been different.”
Without the two key moments at the start and the end, which are entirely thanks to Verstappen, Red Bull would have left Austin deflated. “After the sprint race, we made some adjustments to the setup, and understeer emerged, which compromised the management of the front tires,” revealed Christian Horner. “On Saturday, tire degradation was always under control, but on Sunday it wasn’t, and that’s something we’ll have to analyze. But overall, I think the car has improved thanks to the latest updates. After Singapore, I believe there’s been a strong turnaround. Max this weekend gained five points more than Norris, three weeks ago we weren’t absolutely sure that would be possible.”
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