(Motorsport news) While the world champion team’s opponents have all closed in this season, Verstappen has always appeared to have enough in hand to fight off anyone who appears to be on the cusp of an attack. It was a similar tale at last weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix, when McLaren’s Lando Norris seemed like he could challenge Verstappen in both the sprint and the main race – before the lead Red Bull could stretch its legs.

Red Bull team head Christian Horner claims that the events unfolding are not the result of the team sandbagging to conceal its genuine advantage and only pushing aggressively when necessary. Verstappen, on the other hand, was a master of managing his pace and tyres to ensure he always stayed in control. “I think that everybody manages their pace differently in a race, but I think Max has become so good at reading a race,” Horner went on to say.

“He doesn’t freak out if he notices someone taking time away from him in the middle sector or whatever.” That’s because he’s thinking long term. “And I think he’s just got that inner confidence that he knows where he is.” Horner believes Verstappen is now reaping the benefits of prior seasons’ expertise, even when he was being thrashed by the then-dominant Mercedes team.

When asked when he first noticed Verstappen’s ability to correctly evaluate his tire management, Horner replied, “2019, I think it was during that period he really, really stepped it up. Then, to a degree, ’19 into ’20.” In ’20, Mercedes had a rocketship, but we still managed to win a few races. Then there was ’21,’ which was clearly huge.” While Verstappen has made winning in F1 appear easy, he admits that high-degradation races like Brazil are difficult to manage.

“Maybe it looks fully easy from the outside, but I think for most of every stint, Lando was matching my lap times,” remarked the former world champion. “It was always the last five to ten laps when it seemed like we had better tyre deg.” But, yes, at the start of each stint, I had to focus intensely and couldn’t afford to make mistakes. “It’s not easy to drive around here, especially with the high temperatures.” You can’t just sit back and let the car drift into the corners without consequence. You had to be completely focused.”

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