How the Max Verstappen effect is beating McLaren’s brains and computers

Red Bull has not been the team to beat for several races now. The total domination of the Milton Keynes-based team has been eclipsed by the continuous and positive improvements of McLaren and Mercedes.

Even so, the Max Verstappen effect is proving to be even greater than the work of the engineers who want to challenge the Dutchman’s championship status with more powerful weapons on track.

Max Verstappen: Both man and machine

Despite an evident change of forces in the pecking order of the Formula 1 grid, there is one name that stands out above all others.

It is none other than Max Verstappen, who despite all the adversities and finding himself with a car inferior to McLaren and – in the last race – Mercedes, is able to come out on top.

Verstappen’s ability behind the wheel goes far beyond pure talent or skill. The Red Bull driver always has the ability to be in the right place at the right time. Something that is also backed up by Red Bull’s pitwall, but ultimately executed by Verstappen.

Since the Monaco GP and excluding the Austrian GP, the Red Bull has been a slight step behind the McLaren. Despite this, even alone against the danger of Lando Norris, both Mercedes drivers and occasionally Oscar Piastri, the Dutchman has steadily increased his lead in the F1 standings over the last few races.

After equalling Ayrton Senna’s record of most consecutive pole positions at the Emilia Romagna GP, Verstappen could only achieve another pole position in Austria where the Red Bull was clearly the fastest car. But it was the only track in the last seven races where this was so evident.

In Miami and Emilia Romagna, McLaren excelled with the revamped MCL38. In Monaco it was Ferrari, in Canada it was Mercedes, in Spain it was McLaren and in the changing conditions at Silverstone both McLaren and Mercedes were ahead.

But despite this, with the exception of Monaco and, curiously, Austria – due to the accident with Norris – Verstappen has come out of every Grand Prix with more points than his direct rivals in the F1 standings.

The Max Verstappen effect really exists and now, with the grid order tighter than ever, he is really making the difference.

Two races remain before the summer break. The gap between Verstappen and Lando Norris, his closest challenger, is 84 points in the Drivers’ standings .

That means Max has three full races – not counting the extra point for fastest lap or Sprint format weekends – to make some very serious mistakes or suffer a mechanical failure that forces him to retire to bring the championship back to level terms.

Mercedes has perhaps arrived too late in the battle for 2024 and Ferrari has fallen away too soon.

The truth is that after 12 races, we have only seen Verstappen fail in Austria.

The Dutchman succumbed to pressure from Lando Norris and McLaren for the first time this season… but this mistake was because he felt vastly superior all weekend.

He couldn’t bear to see himself behind Norris when he was on course for a Grand Chelem with ease and Red Bull got it wrong at both the pit wall and the pit stop.

Contrary to what is currently happening since Miami, Red Bull’s performance is not superior to the others. And it is for this very reason that Verstappen does not lose his nerves and is at his best, making his very own ‘effect’ count more than any other element.

The pressure is on him when he knows he has everything to win. But when the odds are stacked against him rather than for him, he and the team are able to bring out the winning gene that McLaren and Lando Norris are currently lacking.

This doesn’t mean McLaren and Lando will never win. It means that Red Bull and Max already have a ‘champions’ status that they have earned on track over the last few years – and to break away from that status beyond pure on-track performance is difficult.

McLaren is still in the process of growing. Max Verstappen has already grown up and won many times in the recent era.

That makes the Max Verstappen effect an even more important factor than computers, simulations or the minds of the engineers back in the factories.

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