"It’s not as if it’s a tiny little funnel of love": Pundit advises Max Verstappen to be cautious during critical moment of the F1 US GP

Peter Windsor has advised for caution at turn 1 of the F1 US GP for Max Verstappen, as that could potentially compromise his race. The Dutch driver has a 52-point lead over Lando Norris but with Red Bull's on-track performance continuing to flounder compared to McLaren, the gap has decreased in the last few races.

The season started on a dominant note for the reigning champion. Red Bull had a clear advantage over the competition and used it to win races. This was one of the reasons behind Verstappen winning four of the first five races of the season.

All of it, however, started to change in Miami when McLaren introduced a major upgrade for the car. As soon as that happened, both teams got into opposite trends. Red Bull's performance has regressed while its rival has surged.

With just six races left, McLaren is more or less expected to be the benchmark, while Red Bull is coming off a disappointing string of races after the summer break.

Verstappen, however, has a 52-point lead over Norris and he will be trying to manage this as it comes to the end of the season. Peter Windsor cautioned the Red Bull driver to be careful at the start of the race because he couldn't afford to be involved in an accident. On his YouTube livestream, Windsor said:

“Turn 1 [will be] key for the Max-Norris battle. Well, it will be. It’s pretty wide there, isn’t it? It’s not as if it’s a tiny little funnel of love. It’s wide."

He added,

“There’ll be some fisticuffs there, for sure. Max doesn’t need a DNF, does he? He doesn’t need to be nerfed off at the first corner because that will start to put a lot of pressure on them. I can’t imagine Red Bull are going to win Mexico given the way they are. So, the pressure could build up then. But it would be more pressure if they hadn’t taken all these points away from Lando.”

Max Verstappen on how the title battle with Lando Norris is different from the battle against Lewis Hamilton in 2021

Max Verstappen was questioned about how he compared the title battle with Lando Norris this season to that with Lewis Hamilton in 2021, and the driver had some key observations. He pointed out that in 2021, there were only two teams capable of fighting for the title, but in 2024 there are as many as four, fighting at the front.

The driver also admitted that he's more relaxed now after the kind of success he's already achieved compared to 2021, and that does help him keep his nerves in check. He said,

"Right now we still have four teams at the front, while back then you just had the same two people up front. 2021 was my first world championship, so that was very different already. I think I'm a bit more relaxed about it now. Of course, I want to win and of course, I'm going to do my best to defend that [52-point] lead. But the feeling is very different from 2021."

The last six races are slowly going to see a buildup in tension as things ramp up. It will be interesting to see how Lando Norris and Max Verstappen handle the pressure of the title battle.