Verstappen REACTS to NLS2 Win, RB22 UPGRADE?! ⚡🚀

All right guys, welcome back to F1 News. Max Verstappen had a much better day today at the Nürburgring than he did last weekend at the Chinese Grand Prix, but his team boss Lauren Racky says that the Red Bull RB22 will be much improved come the Japanese Grand Prix, a racetrack that Max has dominated at Suzuka in large part over these last few years. Will that be a similar story this time? Not on the evidence of Australia or China, but Red Bull say they might be able to give him a car which is nearly as fun to drive as what he had today at the Nordschleife. Subscribe if you're new as always, I greatly appreciate it. Let's get into it though because a big day for Verstappen and really motorsport fans in general. This is Suzuka, not the Nürburgring. We can see all of the freight has arrived in time for the final Grand Prix for quite some time, right? All this freight would be on its way to Bahrain, to Jeddah. That's no longer happening. I do wonder what they're going to do about all the equipment they left behind in Bahrain because they did the test in Bahrain, so with the Grand Prix coming up round four, the teams leave an awful lot of stuff there because they've got another Grand Prix to do and that stuff then has to be sent on somewhere else. So I don't exactly know how they're going to deal with the equipment left behind, let's say in the paddock, but that's a problem for another day maybe, but I'm sure the logistics people are working on it right now. Nonetheless, this is the situation in Suzuka, but we'll get back to that in a second after we talk about Max Verstappen in a Mercedes. Now this is still kind of cursed in a way and I'm sure that Toto Wolf had a great time watching this today because Toto Wolf also gave Max the absolute avengers on his team today in some regards. Now, like people were talking about how competitive today was, I think Max's team was inevitably going to win with the strength of their team. Some of the top quality WEC drivers are over in Sebring right now as well. There's a 12 hours going on over there. So I hope we get to see more of Max in the Nürburgring. It's great fun to watch. His battle today with Christopher Haase was brilliant fun and well, he put it on pole position first of all. So he started on pole in the number three car and he was racing the number 16 car, not Charles Leclerc this time, during the first in his Mercedes-AMG GT3. So Max in a Mercedes is, yeah, definitely something and Toto, I'm sure, was loving it. It was pretty funny because in the first stint, the commentators weren't 100% sure who was behind the wheel, but they noted that whoever it was behind the wheel of the red bull liveried Mercedes was harassing the safety car all over the place. And they were like, okay, that's got to be Max, which of course it was, right? So for Max to drive a car that doesn't need all sorts of battery management and all this type of stuff was, I'm sure, he thoroughly enjoyed himself and he had a great battle with the number 16 Audi driven by Christopher Haase, who's a, you know, multiple Nürburgring 24 hours, Spa 24 hours winner, you know, veteran racer. And they had a fantastic battle through the traffic. It was, yeah, fantastic to watch. The, well, Haase got the lead over Max. He got it. He actually extended a bit of a lead. Then Max caught up and eventually overtook him right at the end of the stint. In fact, I think this is when it wants to load that overtake all the way down the straight and yeah, absolutely neck and neck stuff, but premium racing, to be honest here. And then they both dive into the pit lane just after this. And then during the pits, the Audi gets the lead back. They change drivers, but at that point it was a younger, less experienced driver in the Audi car and Verstappen's team at Jungendelle just drove away into the sunset really. And it was race over at that point, but yeah, quite the turnaround, right? Because Max has been battling a Haas for the last couple of weeks in Formula 1. Today he was battling a Haas in another way. So yes, Max, we know, has not been having a fun time in this new era of regulations. He's also made it very clear it's not just about the regs. The reality is if his car was fastest, he might not be loving it. I mean, he even said, although he didn't say explicitly, but it has been said that Max was not a big fan of the grand effect cars in the way that they drove, right? Very stiff, not very fun on the driver's spines. And the drivers would all tell you this, I think. But in the early days of the regulations, they were incentivized if they were on a good team, not to really complain about it because obviously it was Hamilton and Russell, especially in the Mercedes with all the porpoising, they were struggling most of all with this. And while the other drivers weren't having a great time, because even if your car didn't porpoise, it was certainly bouncing through some of the corners that caused problems elsewhere. But the drivers and Max, even though I think Max would tell you this now, maybe weren't so willing to talk about it at the time because it was in the best interest of their team to keep the status quo. That is likely true today as well. Yes, you will get Hamilton, Leclerc, Russell Antonelli talking to some degree about that. Well, qualifying isn't really what it used to be because the car is no longer on the limit of adhesion because of all the super clipping and all this. But obviously Verstappen, it's in his interests to discuss that with where Red Bull's competitiveness currently is. If the Red Bull was the best car, I think he'd still be saying it, but probably to a lesser extent. But it's not really about the regs entirely. Obviously, Max is not happy with the regulations and wants changes made. And we think changes will be made, probably not to the extent that Verstappen would like. But himself, he has said it's not all about the engine. It's not all about the regulations. The car was just terrible at China. No grip, understeer, oversteer. He was struggling to stay in points contention, really, and struggling not to get lapped. And then his car blew up and he had to retire anyway, right? So it couldn't be much worse for Red Bull to start out the season and we'll get back to what that looks like in the coming races because they'll need to have a good time in Japan. Haase, after his battle with Max, actually said, really fun racing, had parts where Max was quicker, parts where I was quicker, awesome racing. It does put into context as well, even Antonelli, he had an outing in GT3 a couple of years back when he was like 16 or something, and he was just unbelievably rapid. There are levels to it. There's a reason why Formula 1 drivers, although this may not always be true in F1 drivers, you know, put them to IndyCar or NASCAR and series like this, it's not like they dominate every championship they're in. But F1 drivers are generally different gravy. I think Max especially, if he fully committed and all he did was weck, yeah, I mean, he would be an unbelievably dominant force, as I think would several of the top Formula 1 drivers. But regardless, Antonelli was watching the race, as were many of us at home. And yeah, it was, I mean, this was an unbelievable set of overtakes. Obviously, he's overtaking here some slower cars to a degree, weaving his way through traffic. But I mean, look at this, right? Passing the Red Sea goes Max straight through the middle. But I think at this point he was leading the race by like a minute. But he went for this move regardless. Anyway, these were some of the highlights, really, of some of his best overtakes. This is pretty spectacular to watch as well. Right on the limit, up on the grass, as always, no problem at all. And this was the overtake that he did on Christopher Haase, actually, with a little bit of a side draft to slow down Haase and eventually get the lead through the end of his stints. But really, in the final stints, Max had no competition. And Max made his thoughts clear as well. He actually said the following, at least you can drive flat out without looking at the battery, right? And I think Max is bang on. I don't think many of us are going to disagree that the over-reliance on battery now in Formula 1 has caused issues. It has maybe advantages, depending on who you speak to. I don't think it's as bad as some of the doomsdayers are suggesting, but look, maybe I'll be proven wrong over the coming races. Max, however, wants that to go, and I'm sure he was having a much better time of things today. He certainly had a smile on his face more than we have seen recently. And also, given that April there are now no Grand Prix, he was asked after crossing the line first and winning the race, because he also did the final stint, which will come as no surprise to anybody, the F1 calendar is thinner. Is there a chance we see you back at the Nordschleife? And he says, look, we're looking into it. It's definitely something to consider. But yeah, Max had a very, very strong team, Junker Delle, Jules Gounon, and yeah, they pretty much dominated this race and won by practically a minute after a great battle in the first stint between Max Verstappen and Christopher Haase. And this becomes true now. It's kind of cheesy. I don't know if I love this stat, but it is a funny stat. I don't think it's worth saying really that it's not something we have seen from Formula 1 drivers in some time. It's been, you know, back in the 60s and the 70s and even other eras, the drivers would race, you know, Jim Clark among various others in multiple championships. They might do Indy. They might do sports car racing. They would do whatever. And some of it was for the money because they weren't getting drastically paid in Formula 1 back then. So they needed to use their craft in, well, they use their skills in other crafts, shall we say, within the motorsport domain. But over the last few decades, that's become markedly less true. The athletes, the Formula 1 drivers are getting paid significantly more than they used to. They don't need to race in other series, even if they might want to and enjoy doing so. Their teams treat them as such a prized commodity and for understandable reasons that they won't let them do anything else. Helmut Marko was, as far as we understand, pretty adamant that Max was not going to go and race at the Nürburgring because it is a dangerous circuit, right? Like, it's definitely a dangerous circuit. It's a phenomenal circuit and the drivers feel like it brings the best out of themselves and is on some of the highest skill requirements of any track on the planet. And the best drivers want to challenge themselves with that, but equally the teams, and we believe Red Bull and Marko for some time were like, Max, you are not driving that. Like, let's be serious here. We're to not, you know, do stuff like this. Now, Red Bull kind of has no choice. It's the same way that if Hamilton wants to turn up without the team merchandise on, if he wants to turn up with a load of rings on his fingers to spite the FIA and four watches on his wrist, whatever. And if Hamilton wants to say and criticize things that junior drivers wouldn't be able to, what are you going to do? It's Lewis Hamilton, right? It's kind of the same thing with Max Verstappen and he's now at a point where Red Bull have to be like, okay, Max, if you want to do it, I guess that's fine because how else do you keep him happy? You can't keep him happy with the RB22. In recent seasons, at least the Formula One car was competitive enough to keep him happy. That's not the case right now. But because he is expanding his horizons, it's a really exciting thing, I think, for motorsport fans more generally to see how Max gets on. Maybe other drivers could follow suit as well. But because of that, he won in one of the junior categories, as it were, when he was getting his license in the Ferrari 296 GT3 when he had this car out last year. He's the most recent driver, therefore, in Formula One to win driving a Red Bull, to win driving a Ferrari, and then now to win driving a Mercedes. Obviously, that will likely get taken back in Japan by one of the Mercedes drivers, but maybe not, as we'll discuss in a second here. There could be, well, there are upgrades on the way. Who will they benefit? Who will they hurt? I guess we shall see. This, by the way, is the Racing Bull livery for the upcoming Japanese Grand Prix. Of course, they're no longer the Honda partnership. It was always a big deal for Red Bull. They actually did run, didn't they, last year, the white version of the Red Bull livery. Spectacular, largely to commemorate the final year with Honda. Now, they're no longer with Honda, but it doesn't mean that the Red Bull teams are not going to do special liveries for the Japanese Grand Prix. This, I've got to say, is absolutely spectacular. This is the Racing Bull, not the Red Bull, as far as I understand. It kind of could be either, I suppose, based on what we have seen before, but no, this is from V-Car Racing Bulls, but it is the Red Bull Spring Edition. So, yeah, just to make that very clear anyway, which car this will be on, but nonetheless, a pretty spectacular, it's kind of like a little bit of, well, there is some Japanese on it. I wouldn't call it Cherry Blossom exactly, but there's a little bit of that. I mean, I guess it is the Cherry Edition here, right? So, there's a little bit of that going on in the car and yeah, just thought this is particularly stunning. We'll see how good it looks on the track, that is for sure. And the Racing Bulls has been a pretty competitive car so far this season, even maybe more so than the Red Bull at times. Yesterday, we talked briefly about Ferrari and I just wanted to give a quick update there because we've been talking about the new engine they are trying to build. Well, they are building the new engine, they are hoping that they get the ADUO allocation, they can actually introduce it mid-season, that is the aim. And Dequesa says that to confirm what we discussed from the Auto Racer article yesterday, that the new power unit will feature the largest possible turbo. So, as we said yesterday, if you guys didn't see yesterday's video, there's all this talk that, oh, Ferrari have a smaller turbo than Mercedes and all this. And I guess the assumption from that would be maybe it's, I don't know, half the size, is Mercedes twice as big or a third bigger or something. The difference between them is at maximum 10% because that's all that's allowed in the regulations. So, it's not like this crazy big deal where Ferrari has a tiny turbo, Mercedes have a massive one, but yeah, Ferrari's is smaller for sure, but not drastically so. And it feels like actually the bigger turbo is the way to go. And yes, it gives Ferrari some advantage off the line, but as we discussed yesterday, their advantage off the line probably isn't to do with the smaller turbo or certainly not entirely, it's more to do with the wastegate valve management system and some other factors. But these are all rumours and speculation to an extent, but when Ferrari bring their new power units, overall they expect it to be stronger with a larger turbo, that's what they're working on. Dequesa says the same thing as of yesterday. Now, Williams, this article was actually talking about Williams, how they found themselves in the predicament they're currently in, why they are so overweight and all this stuff. They're trying to bring in some more high quality people and all this, but based on what we saw on the Weybridge the other day, in fact, the Red Bull might be even heavier, which is, yes, problematic to say the very least. We believe the Red Bull is probably at least 20 kilos overweight, maybe more, maybe more like 25, 30. And look, if it's overweight to the extent that the Williams is, I mean, Williams tried to hide it after the rumours, no one was really talking about Red Bull being that overweight, but if they're 25 kilos overweight, there is at least seven to eight tenths in there, you would think. And that is a decent chunk of their current gap, to be fair to the front. So not to say that's an easy workaround for Red Bull, but they do have pretty straightforward performance that they can find. And Laura McKeese actually says that going into the Japanese Grand Prix, they will have a major step forwards, they have major fixes to their car, they're going to bring an awful lot. So this is the development race that we will see this season. Yes, Max had, well, he had an awful Australian Grand Prix qualifying. The Grand Prix itself was better, recovered to sixth, maybe would have finished ahead of Lando had he started ahead, more than likely he wouldn't have been challenging the top four. But it wasn't completely terrible and Max made pretty much mincemeat of most of the field that weekend. China, however, was disastrous. No grip, no performance, struggling not to get lapped. To be honest, the car was terrible everywhere. The high speeds probably was better than the other corners, but the medium speed and especially the slow speeds, the Red Bull was pretty awful, which you would expect, right? As the car gets, well, as the corner gets slower, the downforce gets reduced. Presumably the weight, you know, the weight difference that they have becomes more of a problem in the slower speed corners. That seemed to be where they were losing the most time. And Japan, not too many slow speed corners. The medium high speed section of sector one has been like Verstappen's playground for the last few years. He's just been so good around this circuit and has dominated it on so many occasions. It also might rain. So we know what Max has done here in the past in the wet as well. So there's some room to be optimistic for Max. He's probably in a better frame of mind after winning today at the Nürburgring. He gets to come back in a week or so's time to Suzuka, a circuit where he's gone very well. Red Bull are confident they've got big upgrades on the way. Maybe they're going to take some weight out of the car. Maybe they're just going to increase performance. But look, Red Bull are confident they can keep Max happy, but they will need to deliver a much better car, right? Because if Max doesn't like the regs, then he's not going to love his time in Formula One. And if the car is bad, then it's a double whammy, right? Like, I think Max could almost accept the regs if he was in the best car, but not in the best car, not even close to it, not even fighting for podiums. That will be probably too much to ask for Max to be committed to staying, especially when other championships, as we have seen today, for example, are just so compelling. So very much into your thoughts on all this stuff in the comment section below. Hit the like button if you enjoyed. Subscribe if you're new. Take care, and I'll see you next time.