The latest F1 shine signals from Max Verstappen, Road Road to come for title challengers

Suzuka, Japan – Superlatives used to describe the performance of the Japanese Grand Prix of Max Verstappen, where pole position prepared him to win the race in front of the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, have sank in the past two days.

Fernando Alonso from Aston Martin, twice world champion in Formula 1, called Verstappen “Magical” on Saturday. Red Bull’s director of the Red Bull team Christian Horner praised the Dutch weekend as “inspiring” and “perfect”. Verstappen’s racing engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, described the race as a “perfection”.

He needed to be all this and more to defeat McLaren’s fastest cars, which started the season in such a way that it was clear that it would be the most difficult Verstappen Championship to date.

It was only in the wet in Australia, when he finished second, he had a chance against papaya cars. McLaren has placed himself at an end of 1-2 the last time in China while Verstappen, left frustrated by a slower Red Bull car which was still not to his taste, returned home in fourth position.

But the domination of Verstappen in Suzuka, set up by one of the largest pole towers of his F1 career, reminded the world F1 how difficult it will be to beat – even if it does not have the fastest car.

The fourth consecutive victory of the Japanese Grand Prix of Verstappen – something that even Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel have never obtained – was won in a car that does not have the advantage of his previous winners. He had won the last three Suzuka races on average 19.6 seconds. There was not such facility on Sunday.

“The whole race, I saw two orange cars in my mirror, in particular these last 20 laps,” said Verstappen at the press conference after the race. “We were very strong there.”

McLaren began this season a step ahead of his rivals this season. One of his greatest advantages was the way the MCL39 car took care of its tires, especially towards the end of the relays. But in a race with a very low degradation of the tires, allowing Lambiase to give Verstappen a very early call to push until the end in the last pass, which was removed.

By dragging into “dirty air” (which is launched at the back of the coming car) of the Red Bull left Norris and Piastri helpless to roll up Verstappen, in particular performing the same strategy at the front, walking in one tower of the other. The nearest Norris came from the stands, when a slightly slow stop from Red Bull – who had two crew members at the rescue stand working this weekend – gave a small opportunity. Norris approached Verstappen at the exit of the pit but rebounded through the grass. He initially complained on the radio that he had been forced, only to admit after the post-race that Verstappen had the right to do what he did.

“I was just trying to cut the grass,” said Norris at the press conference. In the cooling room before the podium, Verstappen laughed with Norris saying: “It is a fairly expensive lawn mower.”

Verstappen’s lack of comfort in his RB21 had prompted Red Bull to bring a series of configuration changes during the Suzuka race weekend. Teams often try to make breakthroughs that can unlock more pace by granting the driver greater confidence in the balance of the car. Verstappen had trouble in the second half of last year with a similar problem.

He was frank on the gap of McLaren thanks to the tests and the first two races. But after crossing the line in Suzuka, his gratitude to the team was obvious. “What a difficult start after the difficult start,” he said on the radio, a voice full of joy. “Do you see?” We never give up, we continue to push together. ” It was a sign of what he cares and appreciates the effort of the team.

“We are not where we want to be in terms of performance, it’s no secret,” said Verstappen. “But this weekend, it was really nice. Sometimes you have these moments when you draw very good tricks. Fortunately, the balance has become a little more throughout the qualification.”

Horner called him one of the best weekends in Verstappen in F1. “We have literally overturned the car upside down in terms of installation,” said Horner. “He worked very hard with the engineering team. Finally, we gave him a car he could use in Q3 yesterday (Saturday) with the most amazing tour, then convert this today.

“It puts him behind Norris in the pilot championship. We leave Japan with a lot of work to do, but a huge motivation. ”

Bringing the car into a better window is now the attention of Red Bull. The teams are increasingly dependent on data, but Horner has said that the driver is still the most reliable sensor of the good and the bad points of a car.

Absolutely when there is a solution for what Verstappen describes as the “limitations” of the Red Bull car is not clear. “It’s still not corrected,” he said. “I hope it will soon be corrected, but I can’t give you a chronology. It’s just about trying to find this limit.”

Verstappen could easily be more than 20 points behind Norris, so the single -point gap proves that there remains a serious threat, even without the fastest car. Being at the spit from McLaren is sufficient; Verstappen can make the difference.

Norris provided that Verstappen would remain a threat, saying that Red Bull seemed to have “caught up a little” and that McLaren was not so far ahead. He has always been full of praise and respect for Dutch, and explained how the excellent performances of Verstappen have never been a shock to him.

“I know how good it is,” said Norris. “Nothing is more a surprise. We are going to have good races and we can go out. Some days, he will go out in mind, and others, I will do it.”

As a generational a talent that Verstappen can be, that cannot and will not cause relief or a complacency in Red Bull because it is on the occasion to overthrow the steam. Horner expects McLaren to be “very strong” during the next race, thanks to the layout of the track in Bahrain and the forces of his car.

Alonso competed for the championships with Ferrari while missing the fastest car, only missing the title in 2010 and 2012, and he thought about his experiences during the praise of Verstappen.

“He won four championships, so that he could fight with a little less competitive car, but yes, it’s difficult. People don’t realize how difficult it is and how you have to make it perfect every weekend,” said Alonso.

“What he does, it reminds me of my 2012 in a way, when the car was not so good and we fought for the championship. I hope for him, he will be able to win it.”

Verstappen will require that each piece of his immense talent remains in the hunt against McLaren unless Red Bull can fill the gap.

But if his Suzuka weekend is something, he will stay very, very difficult to beat.

(Top Photo: Clive Rose / Getty Images)