SHANGHAI — As his era of Formula One domination steamrolls into a third year, Max Verstappen is somehow continuing to up his game. Of his four victories this season, the Chinese Grand Prix was by far his most dominant and laid waste to any credible notion of a championship challenge emerging from his rivals, including Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.
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Two midrace safety cars meant the 13-second gap to Lando Norris in second place was not representative of the true pace of the three-time world champion. Had things gone his way, the gap could have easily been doubled, and even by simply combining it with the one he had prior to the safety car neutralizing his lead, it would have stood at 25 seconds.
“He’s just like a metronome,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said after the race. “The pace that he showed last year to win the title, he’s just continued that through to this season. Since the last Chinese Grand Prix [in 2019] he’s won 50 percent of all the races. He’s won 21 of the last 23 races. He’s in fantastic form, at one with the car and at one with the team, and enjoying his racing.”
Verstappen himself was typically understated about the performance.
“It was a good one, yeah,” he said when asked if it was his most dominant win of the year. “Also, in terms of the balance in the car, we did a good job as a team to make it even better than what it was at the start of the weekend.”
The routine answer makes you wonder how much he is holding in reserve. But don’t be fooled into thinking it’s coming easy.
Each tenth of a second of lap time he finds over his opposition comes from fastidious attention to detail, and when F1 arrives in Miami in two weeks for the first of three rounds in the USA this year, the hunt for performance will start afresh.
“It’s a completely different track,” Verstappen said. “You know, different tyres, different tarmac, so you never know.
“We need to be perfect — need to try and be perfect. We need to always try and find the best setup on the car to be able to show performances like we did today.
“So that’s what we’ll try to do but also on the other hand I…
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