Max Verstappen has denied that Red Bull upgrades for this weekend’s Formula 1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix are a direct response to the defeat to McLaren in Miami.
Verstappen and Red Bull’s dominant stranglehold with the latest ground effect cars has continued into this campaign with four victories across the opening six races.
However, the Dutchman was beaten to top spot at the previous race in Miami, with McLaren’s Lando Norris capitalising on a Safety Car call to take his maiden F1 win.
But Norris had been lapping at a better pace than Verstappen’s damaged Red Bull with McLaren’s upgraded MCL38 on worn rubber prior to the mid-race intervention.
Red Bull will introduce new parts at Imola, but Verstappen has explained how the lead time on development in the sport has made the timing a complete coincidence.
Asked whether Red Bull had to respond to McLaren’s improvement, Verstappen said: “I mean, it’s not responding. These things are already planned out for a long time.
“It’s not like one team comes with upgrades and we’re like, oh, we need to put something together. It’s literally already in the pipeline.
“We are happy with it, but of course, naturally you have to keep on pushing, because the teams behind us, they are definitely catching up.
“As you could see in Miami, when we don’t get things 100% right, they’re ahead, and we have to try and make sure that we don’t have too many of those weekends.”
Norris had touted that McLaren would not exploit the entire potential from its upgrades at Miami and has expressed hope that Imola should be better suited to its car.
Verstappen is cautious about the threat the Woking-based squad could provide, though, despite recognising that unique conditions blurred the overall picture in Miami.
“McLaren, of course, came with a really big upgrade, so I guess we will only find out here how good that upgrade is going to be because it always takes a bit of time to fully get on top of things, but we knew that,” he acknowledged.
“I mean, it’s about little details that can make quite a big difference in terms of lap times sometimes, and I think especially on a track like Miami, everything is very sensitive, it’s very hot, so a bit too much sliding here and there can make you lose quite a bit of lap time.”
But with Ferrari also implementing a substantial upgrade onto its SF-24 challenger, Verstappen admits it is a relative unknown where Red Bull will stand this weekend.
“There are more people coming with upgrades. I saw Ferrari come with a big, big upgrade, so at the moment, it’s very difficult to know where we are going to be,” he said.
Meanwhile, team-mate Sergio Perez has revealed that Red Bull is not anticipating a marked leap in performance from the upgrades the team has brought to this round.
“Yes, we’re going to have the same upgrades [on both cars],” the Mexican confirmed. “We don’t expect a huge upgrade from our side.
“I think it’s more important to maximize the balance of the car for low fuel, high fuel than the upgrade we have. I think it’s less significant, the upgrade.”
