ROUND 10: 🇪🇸 Spain
FORMULA 1 ARAMCO GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA 2024
Circuit stats
- First Grand Prix: 1991
- Number of laps: 66
- Circuit Length: 4.657 km
- Race Distance: 307.236 km
- Lap record: 1:16.330 Max Verstappen (2023)
- 2023 winner: Max Verstappen
FORMULA 1 ARAMCO GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA 2024
2 seconds is a long time. Max was out of DRS range in a lap. Zack Brown even said the Red Bull was faster.
If 2 seconds is a long time, then what is the 20+ second Verstappen was winning by earlier¿? 2 seconds over 66 laps is just 0.03 seconds a lap - a difference so small that wind, dirty air or track temp will have a larger effect.
The gap that red Bull had was so marginal that I don’t think Verstappen could have overtaken Norris if he had been behind Lando after lap 1
It really doesn’t work that way. When in front, you only go as fast as you need to most times.
If that was true, Verstappen would have taken the fastest lap like he did last year. He was clearly pushing hard and couldn’t do that this year because he didn’t have the car under him
He didn’t have to have fastest lap. He was winning the race. He was saving tires and running at a consistent pace.
The entirety of this was true last year as well. Hell last year he also had a black and white flag shown for track limit violations which would have meant that any further track limit violation would result in a penalty and yet he went for a fastest lap and got it by beating a time set by Perez on new tyres with DRS. Verstappen no longer has the kind of car advantage (or even any discernible advantage based on the last 5 races) that he had last year. If you aren’t able to realise that, I can’t help you.
He doesn’t have as much of an advantage. But, he still has one. As the other cars get quicker so will Red Bull. So will he keep that advantage? Time will tell, but he’s running up the points meanwhile.