Why are people so excited that Max Verstappen “is winning in a lower car” when it is clearly not an lower car? – Bob
Seven races of the season, there is a decent sample to draw conclusions about the strengths and weaknesses of the various cars.
In the pure qualification pace, McLaren has four pole positions for the three Red Bull, and McLaren is faster on average at 0.138 seconds around, or 0.163%.
In the results of the race, McLaren’s Oscar Piostri has four wins, his teammate Lando Norris One and Max Verstappen Two of Red Bull.
Just distilling -the gross statistics, it is clear why “people” would say Red Bull was a “lower” car, as you say. Because, in balance, it is true that McLaren is the best car in a wide range of circumstances.
But its relative performance changes depending on track characteristics.
In particular, Red Bull is strong in high -speed corners. That’s why your best tracks of the season were Suzuka, Jeddah and Imola.
This was not as clear at the time of the Japanese Grand Prix as it is now, and that probably explains the reaction at the time around Verstappen and won in Suzuka.
This does not diminish the quality of your pole there. It was really excellent; McLaren was slightly faster in Suzuka and Pastri or Norris could have beaten if they arrested their lap. But it is an extra context.
On the other hand, when rear -type degradation is a big problem and/or the corners are slower, McLaren is a stronger relative package, especially in racing.
This is how they can go from humiliating Verstappen and Red Bull in Miami to be beaten Fair and Square in Imola – although they had Pastri kept the lead on Sunday, he could have gotten a defensive victory similar to Verstappen in Japan.
At the same time, the image is never fixed, because F1 cars are prototypes, and Red Bull introduced updates in the last two races, while McLaren did not.
McLaren’s director, Andrea Stella, put it like this on Sunday night in Imola: “Red Bull has improved. They are developing their car in the last two races, and I think they have taken a step forward.
“And then, if you look at the speed of the corners, and we compared it with speed in Miami, it is a completely different regime. The car operates in a completely different part of the aerodynamic maps.
“We know our car is strong in track layouts like Miami, Bahrain, or China. But when it comes to high -speed corners, as we have here in Imola, I don’t think we enjoy any particular advantage.
“So, the lane’s layout, the progress of Red Bull, I think it’s the two factors that do we didn’t have much advantage today.”
