US Grand Prix: Max Verstappen’s ‘positive pressure’ as he goes ‘flat out’ for fifth title

The statistics of the last four races in the last month and a half are quite remarkable.

After the Dutch Grand Prix, Verstappen was 104 points behind McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in the championship and 70 points behind Lando Norris. He is currently 40 points behind the Australian pilot, whose gap with his teammate has decreased to just 14 points.

Verstappen expressed that he did not believe in what he achieved. If someone had told him this would happen after Zandvoort, “I would have told him he was stupid.

“But we found a good way with the car. It’s that simple. Of course we made some upgrades to the car, but we understood our car a little better, where we wanted it to perform better.”

The 64-point gain over four races tells its own story, but how it came about is equally remarkable.

McLaren had overtaken Red Bull in summer races in Europe; until, at the Italian Grand Prix in early September, the improved floor and front wing finally gave Verstappen the balance he had been searching for all year.

Since then Red Bull has been the fastest car. Until this weekend in Austin, this could be explained by track characteristics; Monza, Baku and Singapore all require short, slow corners and good braking and traction.

McLaren’s strengths are not in this area; They crush everyone else in long, medium-speed corners.

However, Austin is a “normal” circuit, it is a road circuit not a street circuit, it is not a high-speed circuit with good corners like Monza. And Verstappen won again.

There are five races left, two of which are sprint races. If McLaren continues to approach its drivers at this pace it will win its fifth consecutive title, plain and simple.