Dominance of McLaren? Crisis at Red Bull? Not with Max Verstappen! While the complete Formula 1 world basically only talks about how big the lead of McLaren in Saudi Arabia will be, the world champion is grown with a next magic round and, like in Suzuka, gets the pole position-the second within just two weeks.
Even motorsport consulent Helmut Marko had not expected pole position in advance – although the Austrian had often made too skeptical forecast in recent weeks. In Dschidda, he also thought his team was more in the third series than in the first, but he had been fooled by McLaren’s fable period in the third training session.
“I believe that this morning McLaren flew heavily and who only had very little petrol in the car,” he sees a reason for the wrong assumption. Another reason – in addition to the magic round of Verstappen – was that Red Bull set the car correctly again after the third training session.
Verstappen also says that he immediately felt more comfortable in the car in qualifying. “We made a few smaller changes to the car, but they were obviously big enough to feel them clearly,” says the Dutch.
“I think this is a bit the story of our car: it is a bit hit or miss. If we can do it properly, it is of course competitive. But if not, it will be much more difficult.”
Qualifying was more part of the “hit” category. In addition, the conditions in the evening Red Bull also accommodate more than in the afternoon, where McLaren has advantages. “The cooler it gets, the better it could be,” confirms Marko in an interview with “Sky”. But it is also clear that without the right coordination it would not have worked today.
First experiment, then the right direction
Red Bull had tried a lot on Friday and Saturday morning to learn through the car. “If I do the same every weekend, even though we have certain problems, I don’t learn anything about it,” explains Verstappen. “Some things work, others don’t work. You are listing everything and trying to find out new things by car.”
“And today we decided on the set-up that was the right way for this route,” said the world champion, who speaks of small adjustments between training and qualifying. The fact that McLaren was so strong before shows that all other teams have bigger problems in the conditions.
The qualifying itself went relatively well for Verstappen. Already in Q1 he was able to get the best time and then travel with the McLaren in Q2 at eye level. With Lando Norris, one of the rivals then threw the car into the wall, which made the red flag necessary and the qualifying initially interrupted.
Two Q3 runs “The right one for me”
Then Verstappen went a different way than the competition. While the other pilots were just trying (Oscar Piatri was the only driver for a time), he put on two runs. “I think that was the best strategy to give him the chance of the pole,” says team boss Christian Horner.
Verstappen underbot Piatris time by 0.001 seconds, quickly drove to the box and picked up a new tire set. In the meantime, George Russell and Piatri had undercut time again, but the Red Bull driver countered and drove over the goal with a tenth of a second.
“I am glad that we did that,” says Verstappen about the two-run strategy, “it kept me in the rhythm and it felt good.”
He admits that he was initially not sure which approach would be the right one after Norris’s accident. “In the end, GP (racing engineer Gianpiero Lambiase; editor’s note) said: ‘We fill up for two runs.'”
“You drive the first round on used outlap tires, then come to the box and get freshness. Of course you have a little more weight with more fuel and are slower in the first round. But yes, that was the right decision,” says Verstappen. “In the end, it was just the thing for me – from the feeling and to get me to the limit.”
Saudi Arabia significantly better plaster for the RB21
For Red Bull, the pole position is a clear resurrection after the bad weekend in Bahrain, where little of the team went together and afterwards even a crisis meeting was called. That seems to pay off, at least things are going much better in Dschidda.
“This route fits our car much better,” says Verstappen. “There are a few more high-speed curves here. The asphalt is of course completely different, which in turn has a big impact on the tires.”
“If you drive on routes, where you need a lot of rotation in the middle of the corner and have long curves – as in Bahrain – that’s a big problem for us.” In Saudi Arabia, however, the car is much more competitive.
“I’m not saying that the problem is solved, but at least I had the opportunity to better push and get along a little better with the restrictions,” said Verstappen. The race will show whether he can keep McLaren behind on Sunday as in Suzuka.