Verstappen took pole in the first seven races of 2024, but has now not recorded a pole position since the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. And after losing out to Norris in qualifying in Spain before only narrowly beating his friend and rival in the race, Verstappen was generous in his praise of what McLaren are currently achieving on track.
“I always knew that it was going to be very close,” said Verstappen after the Barcelona race. “And McLaren is just doing a really, really good job. They have brought a lot of good updates to their car, and it really just seems to work. And from our side, we have brought things to the car, but probably not as much lap time as what others have been bringing to their car.
READ MORE: Norris claims he ‘should have won’ Spanish GP after tardy race start ‘ruined everything’
“So now it’s up to us to try and find a bit more, try to get that little jump ahead again. Because I think clearly today, we just lacked a bit of that outright pace, but also just when we had to push, we just couldn’t look after the tyres like Lando, for example, could.
“So these kind of things are quite crucial on most of the tracks where you have a bit of deg [degradation]. So yeah, we need to try and be better on that.”
Despite McLaren’s strong recent form, Ferrari remain ahead of them in P2 in the constructors’ championship, while leaders Red Bull are a full 93 points clear of the Woking team.
