F1, McLaren beats Red Bull. When it comes to the pole position battle, Max came close to another miracle. Once again, the Austrian team demonstrates a great ability to do overnight simulator work between Friday and Saturday. This is a situation common to all teams, but the former world champions handle it brilliantly in pursuit of an improved setup that minimizes issues.
The Verstappen phenomenon is both an asset and a limitation
We can’t overlook Max Verstappen’s enormous talent. A driver capable of detecting every single detail of the car, making it his own, and optimizing all phases on track. A phenomenon that Red Bull simply cannot afford to lose. If they did, they would drop significantly down the standings, even if their other drivers are far from unskilled.
On that note, Yuki Tsunoda, Verstappen’s teammate, was often lapping around one second slower. Furthermore, during qualifying yesterday, to “show his worth,” he crashed into the wall. The cause is simple: he took an inside kerb too aggressively, causing his car to launch, flip, and end his session. Fortunately, Yuki was unharmed.
This dependence on Max Verstappen is not ideal. Having a driver like him is undoubtedly crucial for results. However, the fact that only the talent from Hasselt can fully exploit the RB21 is a double-edged sword. First of all, the fight for the Constructors’ Championship remains out of reach. Additionally, the car’s development is tailored to his driving style, excluding the others by default.
McLaren avoid kerbs, Max Verstappen does the same
McLaren continue to make the difference on entry. The MCL39 has a very grippy front end, to the point where the rear sometimes lightens during corner entry. It’s a much more front-biased setup compared to Red Bull, which suffered understeer throughout FP3. It was clear that the RB21 struggled to reach the apex, especially towards the end of a lap.
Overall, the balance was there. Between the last practice session and qualifying, they made another step forward, but more importantly, they figured out how to unlock the performance of the Pirelli C6 compound. This was crucial, as Red Bull had often struggled in Sector 1 over the weekend and couldn’t match the pace of the Woking cars. In the first sector, the two teams ended up matching each other.
Verstappen found good grip right from the first chicane. In fact, Max stayed off the kerbs, just like the McLarens, whereas he often tried to attack them more aggressively. Looking at the onboard footage, the Dutchman copied Piastri’s lines, using the exact same portion of kerb. So even the MCL39s avoided the kerbs in the early corners to get the floor working optimally.
McLaren: the art of tyre handling
Once again, most of the performance came from the tyres. Over a single lap, Max Verstappen revealed that the more he tried to push, the more the tyres overheated. For this reason, the Dutchman is uncertain about how they’ll manage thermally over race distance. It will be interesting to see what happens today, especially regarding the choice of compounds for the race.
McLaren go into the race as favourites, no doubt about it. However, Max won’t give up easily. If we know him even a little, the four-time F1 world champion will try to attack Oscar Piastri at Turn 1, then aim to set the pace and exploit how hard it is to overtake on this circuit. A very difficult task, though, as keeping Oscar Piastri’s MCL39 behind will be extremely tough.
Leave a Reply