Verstappen had gone into the race in Japan with no guarantee of his long-term form, having failed to find the perfect settings for the steep degradation characteristics that characterize racing at Suzuka during testing.
Changes made to his car after a long, difficult run in FP3 had gone a long way to improving things, but he and the team were still not convinced they had everything sorted.
The situation was made even more complicated by rising temperatures on race day, which contributed to increased attention to tire management.
But the team claims a breakthrough was made during the red flag period caused by Daniel Ricciardo and Alex Albon’s crash when Red Bull made some changes to the settings of Verstappen’s car.
These helped remedy the fact that the team had perhaps gone too far in its reaction to the uncertainty of FP3, before Verstappen and his engineer tweaked things to perfection on their first stop of the race.
Speaking about the work done in preparation for the restart, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said: “I think actually the red flag helped them reset their front wings after they probably overcompensated. So that was interesting.
“Then the car got better and better throughout the race. Perhaps the temperature helped a little, and the configuration changes were also beneficial.
“The engineering team did a great job making up Friday’s deficit to give an advantage on Sunday.”
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 1st position, celebrates at Parc Fermé
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Helmut Marko, motorsport advisor at Red Bull, explained that the weekend had been particularly difficult, with a new upgrade package having to be understood alongside the difficulties of a truncated testing programme.
“You have to understand that we had a pretty big update package here,” he said. “We lost a session due to rain and then we had a change in weather conditions. [Sunday] It was 14 degrees warmer in terms of track temperature.
“All that didn’t make things any easier, but we made the right changes with the front wing. And racing is different for Max anyway. In racing, he only needs four wheels on the car to win. »
Asked about the importance of the set-up changes during the red flag, Marko replied: “First of all, Max and his race engineer, they are very experienced, as well as the data engineer. They know what to do and they know what Max likes.
“It was more or less the right decision. We just had to make a little adjustment after the first stint, so during the first stop.
Additional reporting by Ronald Vording
Verstappen had gone into the race in Japan with no guarantee of his long-term form, having failed to find the perfect settings for the steep degradation characteristics that characterize racing at Suzuka during testing.
Changes made to his car after a long, difficult run in FP3 had gone a long way to improving things, but he and the team were still not convinced they had everything sorted.
The situation was made even more complicated by rising temperatures on race day, which contributed to increased attention to tire management.
But the team claims a breakthrough was made during the red flag period caused by Daniel Ricciardo and Alex Albon’s crash when Red Bull made some changes to the settings of Verstappen’s car.
These helped remedy the fact that the team had perhaps gone too far in its reaction to the uncertainty of FP3, before Verstappen and his engineer tweaked things to perfection on their first stop of the race.
Speaking about the work done in preparation for the restart, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said: “I think actually the red flag helped them reset their front wings after they probably overcompensated. So that was interesting.
“Then the car got better and better throughout the race. Perhaps the temperature helped a little, and the configuration changes were also beneficial.
“The engineering team did a great job making up Friday’s deficit to give an advantage on Sunday.”
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 1st position, celebrates at Parc Fermé
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Helmut Marko, motorsport advisor at Red Bull, explained that the weekend had been particularly difficult, with a new upgrade package having to be understood alongside the difficulties of a truncated testing programme.
“You have to understand that we had a pretty big update package here,” he said. “We lost a session due to rain and then we had a change in weather conditions. [Sunday] It was 14 degrees warmer in terms of track temperature.
“All that didn’t make things any easier, but we made the right changes with the front wing. And racing is different for Max anyway. In racing, he only needs four wheels on the car to win. »
Asked about the importance of the set-up changes during the red flag, Marko replied: “First of all, Max and his race engineer, they are very experienced, as well as the data engineer. They know what to do and they know what Max likes.
“It was more or less the right decision. We just had to make a little adjustment after the first stint, so during the first stop.
Additional reporting by Ronald Vording