While the world champion squad’s rivals have all closed in over the course of this season, Verstappen has always appeared to have enough in hand to fend off anyone who looks on the verge of an attack.
It was a story repeated at last weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix, where McLaren’s Lando Norris looked like being able to threaten Verstappen in both the sprint and the main race – before the lead Red Bull was able to stretch its legs.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says that the scenarios playing out are not a case of the team sandbagging to disguise its true advantage and only pushing hard when it needed to.
Instead, it was more about Verstappen being a master of managing his pace and tyres to ensure he always stayed in control.
“I think that everybody manages their pace differently in a race, but I think Max has become so good at reading a race,” explained Horner.
“He doesn't panic if he sees someone taking time out of him in the middle sector or whatever. That’s because he's looking at the long game.
“And I think he's just got that inner confidence that he knows where he is.”
Source: Autosport