Max Verstappen notes being a bit more sharp with tyre grip and clutch settings has helped in better starts as seen in F1 Mexico GP.
Amid the dominance from Red Bull across the 2023 F1 season, the race starts has been a problem for both Verstappen and Sergio Perez. It hasn’t hurt the Dutchman as much considering that he makes it up eventually with the pace of the car.
The Mexico GP saw multiple good starts from Verstappen and also one from Perez. The Dutchman notes that Red Bull has kind of fixed the issue but it is more that they have been a bit more sharp on tyre grip and clutch settings to make it better.
“I think it’s just doing our procedures a bit better, understanding the tyre grip, it’s clutch settings,” said Verstappen. “I think we just have been probably a bit more sharp on that. And I think at the beginning of the year, we had a bit of an issue but then we fixed the issue but then I think we still didn’t do the right thing with tyre temperature, clutch setting.
“And yeah, it’s all very sensitive. If you’re just next to it, you might have too much wheelspin or not enough engagement. It’s very difficult to get right and I think in Mexico especially it was very good,” summed up Verstappen, as Christian Horner also hailed the starts from both the Dutchman and also Perez.
“I mean starts haven’t been probably our strongest assets this year but certainly the three starts that we had in Mexico were all rocketships, so on this day with the history, the conditions and the tarmac, the altitude and everything, the guys got it just right,” he said.
The race also had a moment of discussion between Verstappen and his race engineer about taking a line at Turn 3 which didn’t work which the Dutchman explained. “It was just a kerb, I tried to also clip the kerb like people around me were doing but I was like a pogo stick sometimes,” he said.
“I tried, just trying different lines. GP’s my race engineer, but I think at one point he was trying to be the driver. We have those discussion sometimes, sometimes I’m the race engineer and then he’s the driver. We just swap roles.”
Here’s Christian Horner on Daniel Ricciardo
Here’s Christian Horner on Sergio Perez situation
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