Norris (left) narrowly beat Verstappen (right) at Imola. Photo: Getty Images/GSI
After Lando Norris pushed Max Verstappen close to Imola, I think we're in for a competitive season. We don't want to go into a race knowing who's going to win it, and McLaren really look like they've really closed the gap to Red Bull. We have to say that Red Bull have not been at their best in the last two races, but this could also be due to the fact that they took risks in their setup due to the pressure of another team challenging them.
Red Bull may be taking a bit of a risk with its development, and it's not exactly paying off. The one thing McLaren has shown the rest of the grid is that you can take a car that was an average grid entry at best just over a year ago and take it to a competitive level. They have two good drivers there. They were expected to start second and third on Sunday but did not. The penalty for Oscar Piastri was a bit harsh.
The second and third would mean that the first pressure would be on Max. I think they're genuinely in the fight, but they might need a little more to make Red Bull really care. It may take another 0.1 or 0.2 seconds to reach the goal, but they are getting there.
McLaren forces Red Bull to keep an eye on them
Max Verstappen made a strong start this weekend, narrowly overcoming that small gap to hold off Lando Norris and move out of the DRS zone. Lando then took care of the tyres, perhaps they were too good in the middle of the second stint. He just didn't push as hard as he needed to. Another 0.1 second faster from, say, laps 40 to 50 would mean he would be on Max's tail at the end of the race with eight or 10 laps to go rather than two or three circles.
<р>Norris's victory was to be achieved at Imola. But it was just a matter of making the most of it every lap: Max's tires had deteriorated dramatically over the last five laps. If Lando had been a little closer, a little earlier, he would have had much more opportunities to overtake him. However, I believe this is the right result: Lando was 0.7 seconds behind Max at the end of the race, and he will learn a lot about how to achieve maximum results on every lap.
But the most important thing here is that McLaren seems to be on par with Red Bull in terms of competition. Ferrari aren't far from it either, and whenever the three teams dive and dive, it completely changes the decision-making process within the team and what they're trying to achieve. I think at the moment I see that McLaren are quite good at making these decisions during the race. We're three quarters of the way into the season and we head into the races not knowing who will see the checkered flag first.
McLaren have done a great job to get where they are, but they also learned a lot last weekend about the use of tires and what they need to consider in the next stage of development. I'm sure they have a plan that will close the gap a little more.
Lando is learning from his mistakes
The team has a very reliable pair of riders. At the end of last year and even at the beginning of this year, Lando was worthy of winning races, but he made too many mistakes that hampered them a little bit, whether in qualifying or in the race. Piastri also straightened his head a little. Now they both ride at such a level that they really can’t afford to make such mistakes. They will have to try to maximize their potential. If you can eliminate the mistakes, you'll be more competitive and you'll be able to put in a little more effort and things will go a little easier.
Lando has become more mature this year and in the race we see he is a little more knowledgeable about tires than Oscar. Whereas in one-lap qualifying, I think Oscar might have a slight speed advantage. But now Lando has enough experience to understand the situation at least a little better. On Sunday we heard his engineer tell him: «You need to get through this, you need to go a little faster.» Lando says he's pushing. The car probably has another second per lap, like the others, but that second per lap will strain the tires. You gain a second on one lap, but lose two seconds on the next.
Whenever they talk about pushing, it's about getting the most out of what they have without overusing anything, especially the tires. I know Lando will learn a lot about how race strategy should work between 40 and 50 laps. He will know that he just needs to find one tenth of a second more on the lap and it would make a huge difference right at the end of the race. I don't think he will make this mistake again. I think he realized that there is still a little bit left in there and during this period you just need to put in a little more effort.
2024 will be an arms race for upgrades
The key point is that we are in a competitive environment and all the teams know it. There's not much to go into about what's happening in Monaco. We should take this with a grain of salt. Anything can happen there. Usually Ferraris are good there, but this is such an outstanding example. McLaren or Red Bull could have been eliminated at the first stage of qualifying. Just because you don't drive a clear lap or you cut a barrier. This has nothing to do with the actual performance of the car. It's about the weekend and how it goes.
We'll treat Monaco as an individual race, which will again give McLaren some time to sort out these new developments in the car. It's not easy to optimize everything so quickly. But from now on, I think we'll see a competitive nature at the forefront in the form of three teams.
If you look at it logically, I think McLaren's Norris and Piastri are probably the strongest consistent a couple of pilots. Leclerc and Sainz are not bad. Leclerc is very good. Sainz can do a very good job, but he doesn't do it consistently enough. Then we obviously have Verstappen, who is exceptional, and Perez, who seems to be struggling more than most. In terms of driver pairings, McLaren have a well-balanced pairing that will compete every week.
However, the development program will continue throughout the season. We saw at Imola that Red Bull brought a few other details to the car — different front wing placement, different rear brake ducts, etc. Red Bull doesn't stand still. McLaren, like Ferrari, made a couple of small modifications. Now everything will depend on the same development race. They should continue to bring these updates.
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