Max Verstappen had a difficult start to the weekend in Miami. During Free Practice, several issues with his car cut his running short. In the final few minutes of Qualifying Q3, he made a mistake that cost him pole position. But he turned things around and he went on to win the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday. 

But even then the victory didn’t come easy. In the last ten laps of the Grand Prix, Max held off a charging Charles Leclerc and drove home to victory. Professional racing driver, Tom Coronel believes Verstappen had to dig deep in order to beat the Ferrari. 

He noted that the Miami Grand Prix was tough, and that Max looked exhausted after the race. ‘In principle, you always take some liquid with you,’ says Coronel. “It’s the driver’s choice whether or not to do it. If you see how Verstappen went through the pain threshold here.”

Tom also explained that one could see that in the other races, the drivers weren’t exhausted as much. But despite the sweltering heat of Miami, Max didn’t falter and executed his race brilliantly.  

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“When you go into the last ten laps with a Ferrari breathing down your neck, you have to be strategic, be smart and be able to handle that pressure. Here he went very deep.”

Red Bull and Max Verstappen: a force to reckon with!

Even though Max has won three races up until now, he is still trailing Charles Leclerc by 19 points. But Coronel believes that Red Bull and Verstappen can close that gap in the upcoming races. 

“He makes fewer mistakes,” says Tom about Verstappen.

Adding on his earlier points as a guest on HLF8, he explained the differences between Max and Charles. “When Leclerc has won, he has a smile on his face. Have you seen Verstappen smile? I can see him in his head thinking it’s a win, and the next win is for him too. That’s a killer mentality. This man was made and bred for this”, claims the Dutchman. 

“In the first races you saw that Ferrari was faster, but the Verstappen-Red Bull combination is now so strong that it will regain the points that it lost at the start of the season.”

What upgrades are teams bringing to Barcelona?

Barcelona will see a host of new upgrades from teams. Ferrari is set to bring their first upgrades, and so is Red Bull. Aston Martin is rumored to be bringing “half a new car”. As for Red Bull, the priority is to bring down the weight of the car, with Helmut Marko saying that with each update, they’re trying to reduce the weight. 

Apart from that, there have been concerns that Red Bull had used up all its development budget. Helmut also denied this and said it affects all teams equally; as quoted by Motorsport.com. 

 “It’s true that the increased logistics costs are a problem,” he said. “But that doesn’t just affect us, it also affects Ferrari and all the other teams.”

Red Bull boss Christian Horner also echoed Marko’s comments and said teams need to be mindful of the updates because of the budget cap. He concluded that one has to be careful and delivered the best value for money. 

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