Christian Horner believes Max Verstappen now has “added bandwidth” which has placed him on “another level” since his debut victory with Red Bull.
Verstappen’s first and 40th wins with the team have now been at the same venue – Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya – and seven years apart.
Over the intervening period, Verstappen has proven himself to be one of F1’s greatest drivers, now with two titles to his name and almost certain to add a third by the end of this campaign.
On Sunday, Verstappen delivered as complete a performance as you will see in F1, conjuring his third grand slam of pole position, fastest lap, and leading every lap en route to taking the chequered flag by an astonishing 24 seconds.
Red Bull’s rivals currently have no answer, and Verstappen’s chief competitor in team-mate Sergio Perez has fallen away alarmingly over the last two weekends, despite a recovery drive from 11th to fourth in Spain, but he is now 53 points adrift.
Assessing the difference between the Verstappen of 2016, who took advantage of a major collision between then Mercedes team-mates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to triumph on his Red Bull bow, and the Verstappen of now, Horner said: “In 2016, he was very raw.
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“He was incredibly fast, hugely, naturally talented. He still has natural speed and tremendous ability.
“But I think what he has now is the experience and roundedness and the capacity he has….when he’s recognising Helmut Marko’s phone ringing from within the car, he’s just got this added bandwidth that’s put him on another level.
“The exciting thing about him is he’s still getting better.”
The anecdote about the phone was with reference to the fact that during Friday practice, and as Verstappen was talking over the radio with race engineer Gianfranco Lambiase, Marko’s phone rang in the background. Verstappen knew instantly it belonged to Red Bull’s senior advisor and made a joke about it.
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On Sunday, once Verstappen had managed to keep his rivals at bay through the first two corners after the race start, from there he “managed the race brilliantly well” according to Horner.
“He had the pace to cover whatever was going on behind him, build a 24-second gap by the end of the race, so an outstanding performance,” he added.
With Red Bull 135 points clear of nearest rivals Mercedes in the constructors’ standings, even after seven of the 22 races, both championships can now only be lost by the team and its superb driver.
Despite Red Bull’s dominance in winning 16 of the last 17 races, Horner refuses to countenance the season as a done deal.
“Anything can happen,” he said. “Both of the championships are looking really healthy at the moment.
“But our focus is now Montreal (Canadian GP on June 16-18) and about trying to get our 100th victory.
“After that, it’ll be the home race in Austria, and after that, it’ll be the other home race in Silverstone, and it just rolls on.
“You go from event to event and you don’t allow yourself to be thinking too far down the line.”
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