SUZUKA, Japan — The superlatives used to describe Max Verstappen’s Japanese Grand Prix performance, where pole position set him up to win the race ahead of the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, have flowed in the past two days.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, a two-time Formula One world champion, called Verstappen “magical” on Saturday. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner hailed the Dutchman’s weekend as being “inspirational” and “inch-perfect.” Verstappen’s race engineer, GianPiero Lambiase, described the race as “perfection.”
He needed to be all of this and more to defeat the quicker cars of McLaren, which started the season in such a fashion that it was clear this would be Verstappen’s toughest F1 championship defense yet.
Only in the wet in Australia, when he finished second, did he stand a chance against the papaya cars. McLaren eased to a 1-2 finish last time out in China while Verstappen, left frustrated by a slower Red Bull car that was still not to his liking, came home in fourth.
But Verstappen’s domination at Suzuka, set up by one of the greatest pole laps of his F1 career, reminded the F1 world of how hard he will be to beat — even if he does not have the fastest car.
Verstappen’s fourth consecutive Japanese Grand Prix victory — something even Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel never achieved — was earned in a car that lacks the advantage of his previous title-winners. He had won the last three Suzuka races by an average of 19.6 seconds. There was no such ease on Sunday.
“The whole race, I saw two orange cars in my mirror, especially those last 20 laps,” Verstappen said in the post-race news conference. “We were pushing quite hard out there.”
Max Verstappen leads Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri during the Japanese Grand Prix (Clive Mason/Getty Images)
McLaren started this season a clear step ahead of its rivals. One of its greatest advantages has been how the MCL39 car looked after its tires, particularly toward the end of the stints. But in a race with very low tire degradation, allowing Lambiase to give Verstappen a very early call to push to the end in the final stint, that was taken away.
Trailing in the ‘dirty air’ (what gets kicked off the rear of the car ahead) of the Red Bull left Norris and Piastri powerless to reel Verstappen in, especially running the same strategy at the front, pitting within a lap of each other. The closest Norris came was exiting the pits, when a slightly slow stop by Red Bull — which had two back-up pit crew members working this weekend — gave a small opportunity. Norris got alongside Verstappen at the pit exit but bounced across the grass. He initially complained on the radio that he had been forced off, only to admit post-race that Verstappen was within his rights to do what he did.
“I was just trying to cut the grass,” Norris joked in the news conference. In the cool-down room before the podium, Verstappen got a laugh out of Norris by saying, “That’s quite an expensive lawnmower.”
Verstappen’s lack of comfort in his RB21 had prompted Red Bull to make a series of setup changes through the Suzuka race weekend. Teams often try to make breakthroughs that can unlock more pace by giving the driver greater confidence in the car’s balance. Verstappen struggled through the second half of last year with a similar issue.
He was frank about the gap to McLaren through testing and the opening two races. But after crossing the line at Suzuka, his gratitude to the team was evident. “What a turnaround after the difficult start,” he said on the radio, voice full of joy. “You see? We never give up, we keep pushing together.” It was a sign of just how much he cares and appreciates the team effort.
“We’re not where we want to be in terms of performance, that’s no secret,” Verstappen said. “But this weekend, it’s been really nice. Sometimes you have those moments where you get some really great laps out of it. Luckily, the balance got a bit more together throughout qualifying.”
Horner called it one of Verstappen’s best weekends in F1. “We literally turned the car upside down setup-wise,” Horner said. “He’s worked very hard with the engineering team. Finally, we gave him a car that he could make use of in Q3 yesterday (Saturday) with the most stunning lap, and then convert that today.
“It puts him one point behind Norris in the drivers’ championship. We leave Japan with plenty of work to do, but huge motivation.”
Max Verstappen celebrates in parc ferme after winning the Japanese Grand Prix (Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
Getting the car into a better window is now Red Bull’s focus. Teams are increasingly reliant on data but Horner said that the driver is still the most dependable sensor of a car’s good and bad points.
Quite when there will be a solution for what Verstappen described as the “limitations” of the Red Bull car is unclear. “It’s still not fixed,” he said. “This will hopefully be fixed soon, but I cannot give you a timeline. It’s just about trying to find that limit.”
Verstappen could easily be more than 20 points behind Norris, so the single-point gap proves he remains a serious threat, even without the fastest car. To be within spitting distance of McLaren is enough; Verstappen can make the difference.
Norris anticipated Verstappen would remain a threat, saying Red Bull appeared to have “caught up a little bit” and that McLaren wasn’t that far ahead. He has always been full of praise and respect for the Dutchman, and explained how Verstappen’s excellent performances never come as a shock to him.
“I know how good he is,” Norris said. “Nothing is a surprise anymore. We’re going to have some good races and we can go toe-to-toe. Some days, he’ll come out on top, and others, I will.”
As generational a talent as Verstappen may be, that cannot and will not breed any relief or complacency into Red Bull as it bids to turn things around. Horner expects McLaren to be “very strong” at the next race, thanks to the layout of the track in Bahrain and the strengths of its car.
Alonso competed for championships with Ferrari while lacking the quickest car, only narrowly missing out on the title in 2010 and 2012, and he reflected on his experiences when praising Verstappen.
“He won four championships, so he can fight with a little bit less competitive car, but yeah, it’s hard. People don’t realise how difficult it is, and how you need to make it perfect every weekend,” Alonso said.
“What he’s doing, 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 can win it.”
Verstappen will require every bit of his immense talent to stay in the hunt against McLaren unless Red Bull can close the gap.
But if his Suzuka weekend is anything to go by, he is going to remain very, very hard to beat.
(Top photo: Clive Rose/Getty Images)