Max Verstappen’s insane attention to detail comes to light at Canadian Grand Prix
Max Verstappen getting ready before a practice session. Barcelona, Spain, June 2023.
We already know Max Verstappen can determine when Helmut Marko’s phone is ringing from within the Red Bull RB19, and it turns out he can also spot a line that is not completely straight.
For Verstappen it was business as usual at the Canadian Grand Prix as he claimed victory for the fourth time in a row and sixth time this season, nine-and-a-half seconds up the road from Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso at the chequered flag.
With that win, he equalled the late, great Ayrton Senna’s tally of 41 career victories in Formula 1, also delivering Red Bull their 100th grand prix win.
Before that 41st win was confirmed though, footage emerged from the second practice session on Friday where Verstappen made a perfectionist observation from the cockpit of the Red Bull RB19.
After pulling up in the Red Bull pit box, Verstappen claimed that the yellow line in the middle, there so that drivers know where to position their front wheels, was not straight compared to the white lines either side.
“Our yellow line, in the pit stop, in the middle, it’s not straight compared to the white lines,” he said over team radio.
“It’s a bit distracting.”
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And that piece of feedback from Verstappen was potentially crucial for the Red Bull team as they clocked the two fastest pit stop times of the 2023 Canadian Grand Prix for Sergio Perez and Verstappen respectively.
That was perhaps the only positive of the race weekend for Perez, who after missing Q3 for the third race in a row, recovered to only P6 at the chequered flag, with Verstappen’s lead over his team-mate in the Drivers’ Championship now standing at 69 points.
Perez’s focus now arguably needs to be on Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, who with a P2 finish in Canada, moved to within nine points of Perez.
Red Bull meanwhile boast a lead of 154 points over Mercedes in the Constructors’ standings.
