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Windsor explains why Verstappen couldn't attack Norris: 'A big difference'
Peter Windsor thinks Max Verstappen drove with the wrong wing setup in the Miami Grand Prix. The 72-year-old F1 journalist explains in an analysis on his YouTube channel that the reigning world champion lacked top speed during Sunday's race.
"At the front of the race Max Verstappen, who made a clean start, was now leading Charles Leclerc and at that point you thought 'wow it's going to be another Max Verstappen Charles Leclerc race'. Max just sort of taking his time and then when everybody else has tyre deg he'll just start to pull away. That's what it looked like in the first few laps," said Windsor, who was, however, surprised by the low top speed of the Dutch RB20. "Max was only doing 309. That is a big difference in the straight line bearing in mind how quick the Red Bull normally is in a straight line."
Sergio Pérez recorded a much higher top speed at 317 kilometres per hour, without DRS. The analyst thinks that Verstappen decided to put a bit more wing on when entering qualifying - when parc fermé also entered - in the hope of capturing pole position. "On this occasion we need to give Max a bit more wing because he needs to be able to manage the tyres well."
Verstappen with a lot of downforce
Prompted by the fact that Verstappen had not been very happy all weekend with how his Red Bull felt, he was given more wing. Perez drove with less wing and thus had a higher top speed, as it was estimated that he would need to overtake more.
At least, Windsor thinks it went that way. "I think they just probably put too much wing on Max's car. Well too much wing. The point is that with the wing they had it didn't actually give Max the race car that he's normally used to having."