Max Verstappen explains that he would have had some pace up his sleeve in Qatar – Despite this, he believes McLaren are getting closer and closer to Red Bull
It was “a good race overall”, reports Max Verstappen after the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix, with the Dutchman claiming his 14th win of the season on Sunday – albeit by a margin of “only” 4.8 seconds.
At other races this year, Verstappen was much more clearly ahead of the rest of the world. So why wasn’t that the case in Qatar? “I think what really made my race was the first stint where we were quite strong and took good care of the tyres,” Verstappen explained.
While the world champion did not make his first pit stop until lap 17, pursuer Oscar Piastri had already come in for his first service on lap 12. The Australian was also slightly earlier than Verstappen at the second and third stops.
The first stint had ensured that he could drive “a little longer on most sets”, said Verstappen. However, this offset in strategy meant that Verstappen said he lost some time to the McLaren every now and then.
“That’s why sometimes the gap looked a bit tighter than it should have been,” he points out, explaining, “Then on the hard tyre [in the third stint] I lost quite a lot of time in the last two or three laps because I had to squeeze through some traffic. “
Red Bull can’t capitalise on big strength
To that end, he had a “slow stop” on his third and final pit stop, he reveals, saying of the two McLaren drivers, “Then they were really close behind me.” In fact, Piastri was only around four seconds behind the world champion after Verstappen’s last stop.
Overall, McLaren were simply “very quick all weekend”, the Red Bull driver insists, explaining, “Especially when the fuel got less, it looked like they were gaining pace compared to me. “
In addition to the reasons already mentioned, Verstappen says the requirement to make at least three pit stops also played a part in him finishing just five seconds ahead of Piastri. This rule was “not ideal”.
“We design cars to be good with the tyres,” Verstappen recalls, explaining that the rule was a disadvantage for Red Bull in particular, “because our car is good on the tyres.” In fact, the RB19 is considered the best car in the field in this respect.
However, Red Bull was unable to exploit this advantage in Qatar because no stint was allowed to last longer than a maximum of 18 laps. “But it was the same for everyone that we had to make those stops. We had to deal with that,” Verstappen shrugs.
Red Bull focus has long been on 2024
In fact, they still had some pace up their sleeve, Verstappen reveals, reporting, “At one point my engineer told me to go a bit faster and we always had the pace to go faster.”
“I need to watch the race again to understand better what happened behind me. I think we had a bit more pace in hand when we really needed it,” said Verstappen, who nevertheless insists McLaren did a “great job. “
“We see that they are getting closer and closer. So we have to try to keep some distance,” he insists, explaining that despite the aforementioned reasons why his lead was smaller, Qatar was proof that McLaren are getting closer and closer to Red Bull.
“McLaren is making big steps forward all year,” Verstappen praises, adding, “From our side, of course we will try to improve a little bit this year, but of course mainly for next year.”
And that could be another answer to the question of why Red Bull’s lead seems to have melted a little of late. Because behind the scenes, the focus in Milton Keynes has long been on the new RB20 for the 2024 season.
