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Max Verstappen has rebuked suggestions that Red Bull's upgrade package for Imola is a response to McLaren's win in Miami. The race in Miami surprised a lot of people, as the Woking-based squad produced an extensive upgrade package.
That upgrade package was proving to be very impressive all weekend, but its real potential came out in the race on Sunday. Lando Norris displayed an impressive pace that was comparable to Max Verstappen in free air. When a perfectly timed safety car propelled Norris to the lead, with Max right behind him, it was a straight shootout for the win.
When that happened, to everyone's surprise, it was Lando Norris who held firm, as Max Verstappen could not keep up with him. In Imola, many teams are keeping an eye on what Red Bull is bringing. Verstappen, however, has maintained that the upgrades were not a response to losing in Miami, it being already planned by the team. In the pre-race press conference, he said,
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“I mean, it’s not responding. These things are already planned out for a long time. It’s not like one team comes with upgrades and we’re like, ‘Oh, we need to put something together.’ It’s literally already in the pipeline."
He added,
“We are happy with it, but of course, naturally you have to keep on pushing, because the teams behind us, they are definitely catching up. As you could see in Miami, when we don’t get things hundred percent right, they’re ahead, and we have to try and make sure that we don’t have too many of those weekends.”
Max Verstappen discusses the impact of McLaren's upgrades
Max Verstappen touched on the impact of McLaren's upgrades as well. The car performed at a very high level, and compared to Miami, Imola is expected to be an even better track for the team.
The Red Bull driver admitted that the true impact of the McLaren upgrades will be shown in due time as we go through different tracks. He said,
"McLaren came with a really big upgrade, so I guess we will only find out here how good that upgrade is going to be because it always takes a bit of time to fully get on top of things, but we knew that. I mean, it’s about little details that can make quite a big difference in terms of lap times sometimes."
He added,
“I think especially on a track like Miami, everything is very sensitive, it’s very hot, so a bit too much sliding here and there can make you lose quite a bit of lap time.”
The race in Miami was the first time since 2022 that Max Verstappen was beaten on performance by another driver. It will be interesting to see how the driver and the team respond in Imola.
