Photo Credit: Red Bull Content Pool
Max Verstappen secured yet another victory in his quest for a third consecutive championship last weekend in Miami, coming from ninth on the grid in a quiet race.
The Dutchman leads by 14 points at the top of the Drivers’ Standings, with teammate Sergio Perez missing out on the chance to usurp him on a cloudy day in Florida.
Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner couldn’t have had a much better start to the season, with his drivers taking 95% of all points available within the first five races.
Speaking about Perez’s title hopes up against Verstappen, Horner said;
“Max was truly outstanding today. But there’s still a long, long way to go. And I think there’s only 14 points between the two drivers, and 18 races to go and five sprint races.
“So still an awful lot that can happen. But I’m sure he was disappointed not to convert it into a victory. But he’s still taking away very valuable points.”
During the race itself, Sky Sports analyst and commentator Anthony Davidson suggested that Perez was receiving no information on the pace of Verstappen and the gap before the Dutchman made his only stop of the race. Horner refuted those claims.
“I think that was a mistake of the commentary, because Checo was very clear on what the pit stop… 19.8 seconds was the magic number. And he was getting every single lap the gap to Max. So long as he knows Max was within that magic 19.8, he knew he was behind him and could obviously work out if he was 16 seconds behind, then there’s three seconds between them.”
The Mexican, who started on pole, failed to impress in Sunday’s race, and struggled to keep pace with Verstappen on much newer hard tyres in the middle of the race.
Photo Credit: Red Bull Content Pool
“It’s just purely sector one, I think 3/4/5/6. Max was outstanding in that sector. And I think the rest of the lap was much of a muchness. But sector one was where Max was really doing a lot of damage,” Horner said.
“I think it’s swings and roundabouts of sport, isn’t it? A week ago he was on a high. But I don’t think he’ll be too disappointed. He’s still taking away 18 points from here. I don’t think there’s anybody that would have beaten Max today.”
With the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix approaching, Red Bull will be wary that the chasing pack are determined to close the gap and start taking victories away from them as F1 arrives in Europe.
Rival teams are expected to bring big update packages over the next few races, and despite budget cap restrictions, it’s hard to see the possibility that anyone can catch the Milton Keynes-based outfit anytime soon.
