Max Verstappen has revealed that the Spanish Grand Prix proved Red Bull no longer boasts an advantage over its Formula 1 rivals on degradation at the end of stints.
Red Bull’s dominance under the current ground effect regulations appeared to be over in recent weeks as both Ferrari and McLaren took victories over the champions.
But while Red Bull delivered on the expectation that it would return to being the benchmark team on a traditional circuit in Barcelona, Verstappen was fortunate to win.
Lando Norris pipped Verstappen to pole position, but the latter got the better launch and held the inside line to pass his rival, despite losing the lead to George Russell.
Verstappen, however, managed to pass Russell on Lap 3 and opened up a nine-second gap, which proved insurmountable for Norris as he came up 2.2 seconds short.
“I think as a, yeah, whole package performance, we had a good race,” Verstappen reviewed.
“We really tried to maximise everything, but I do think that we’re struggling a bit for the, yeah, optimum pace, lacking a bit of tyre deg towards the end of every stint.
“So it wasn’t a very straightforward, easy race. I mean, Lando was catching quite hard at the end, but luckily it worked out, yeah, that it was just enough.”
Verstappen reiterated his comments from earlier in the week when he assessed his credence that Spain would prove to be a close battle amid McLaren’s recent pace.
The three-time F1 champion has claimed that McLaren has introduced more impactful upgrades than Red Bull this term and called on his team to regain the impetus.
“For one year, because I think in 2022 we were not the quickest,” Verstappen said on the narrative that Red Bull tends to dominate in Spain. “Ferrari was the quickest.
“And last year I think we were quite good, but I think Mercedes was actually quite decent at that time of the year.
“So yeah, there has been good for us, but nothing particularly amazing.
“So I always knew that it was going to be very close and McLaren is just doing a really, really good job.
“They’ve brought a lot of good updates to their car and it really just seems to work.
“And from our side, we have brought things to the car, but probably not as much lap time as what others have been bringing to their car.
“So now it’s up to us to try and find a bit more, try to get that little jump ahead again. Because I think clearly today we just lacked a bit that our outright pace.”
The Dutchman also divulged that Red Bull’s previous strength of being faster than its competitors once degradation became a factor in races has now been dispelled.
“Also just when we had to push, we just couldn’t look after the tyres like Lando, for example, could,” he added.
“So these kind of things are quite crucial on most of the tracks where you have a bit of deg.”
With Mercedes continuing to make inroads, Verstappen has stressed that Red Bull must fixate on its own competitiveness rather than the steps its rivals are making.
“It all depends on what the teams are going to bring to their car,” he assessed. “I mean, I cannot look into what they’re doing at the moment.
“The only thing that I can control is within our team, what we are going to bring. And that’s what I’m focused on.
“You know, of course you can dream about potential improvements from other teams, but that’s just a waste of energy.
“So I’m very busy on trying to optimize my package and try to make it better, discussing a lot of things with the engineers and try to find solutions to stay on top.”
