According to Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, the way Max Verstappen managed to defend fourth place for several laps against Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg in Canada, is directly indicative of how far Renault has come since 2015.
For those who recall last year’s Canadian GP, Renault was struggling so badly with power and reliability that both Red Bulls finished the race a lap down. A year later, the Renault-power team has already won once (in Spain) and only missed out on another win (Monaco) because of a pitstop error.
“In previous years he [Rosberg] would have gone past no matter which side he picked,” said Horner while referring to how Verstappen managed to hold the German off on the long back straight in Montreal.
“So for Max to be able to defend the way he did – he wouldn’t have been able to do that 12 months ago.” As reported by Eurosport, Horner also added that this weekend they were just three tenths away in qualifying, compared to 1.5 seconds off last year.
“There will be some tracks where Ferrari will be stronger, and hopefully we’ll have our days where we are stronger as well.”
Ferrari came out with upgraded turbos in Canada, which just about put them level with Mercedes, meaning that the Scuderia will have an advantage over Red Bull on very fast tracks. The latter however have made a pretty big leap since last year and will no doubt be fighting for podium finishes throughout the season at select (max downforce) locations such as Singapore.
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