Max Verstappen says Red Bull’s performance in qualifying for the British Grand Prix is another sign of the progress the team has made.
The Austrian Grand Prix winner will line up fourth on the grid and was only 0.183 tenths off of pole position.Red Bull expected Silverstone to be a more challenging circuit for the RB15 due to its long straights that favour the Mercedes and Ferrari power units.
“To be that close to pole is good,” he said. “The car in qualifying was really strong.”
Verstappen had been unhappy with the balance of his car on Friday but was pleased with the changes Red Bull made overnight.
“I think this weekend we found a good compromise between cornering and straight-line speed because if you look at our wing we are running a bit less than Mercedes.
“We are not too far away on the straights and somehow our car is still working really well through the high speed corners.”
“Last year even when we trimmed the wing it was not giving us that straight-line performance,” he added.
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Patrick (@anunaki)
13th July 2019, 21:19
Max also told he suffered from turbo lag that cost him 2 tenths. Hopefully the car is really that good so he can fight for more wins this season. But I don’t think he can catch Lewis anymore so I would be too late
PMR
13th July 2019, 23:57
Lewis is indeed probably out of reach, but the gap to Botas is 40 point. I say, Game on!!!
Todfod (@todfod)
14th July 2019, 5:28
I think Red bull’s latest chassis update has put them ahead of Mercedes in terms of chassis / aero performance. Now it’s up to Honda to close the gap on the engine side to give Red bull a real chance to fight for the title.
anon
14th July 2019, 9:17
@todfod, has it necessarily put them ahead? In the first and second sectors of the lap at Silverstone, they weren’t especially fast – they were closer to the midfield than the front, with Hulkenberg actually setting a better first sector than either Red Bull could manage.
If you look at the sector times, it looks as if Red Bull tended to be stronger in the final sector than the first two, and arguably the third sector is less aero sensitive than the previous two. Furthermore, there is some debate over whether that is really just down to good aero, or more because Mercedes and Ferrari were beginning to overheat their tyres in that final sector.