At the United States Grand Prix three years ago, the Red Bull Racing pit crew had conceivably its finest hour, completing a pit stop on Mark Webber’s car in a World Record time of 1.923s. It beat their own record of 2.05s, set earlier in the season and was, of course, the first ever pitstop to break the two seconds barrier.
Red Bull have exceeded expectations this year and with Max Verstappen under their wing they have surely have a future Formula One World Champion. Daniel Ricciardo also has shown he has the mettle to compete with Mercedes.
Last year at the American Grand Prix, the ever smiling Australian qualified in third before dropping down to tenth:
“It has a lot of unique features like the wide apex at turn one; you could fit about four cars side by side through there. There are loads of opportunities to overtake and have fun throughout the whole track. It has fast flowing sections and hairpins, pretty much everything I like in a track.”
Ricciardo led last year’s race at the same venue until Rosberg and Hamilton overtook the Red Bull driver due to the greater straight line speed.
Daniil Kyvat who was with Red Bull until he was demoted to Toro Rosso started the race in fourth position.
Max Verstappen should be looking forward to Austin as he produced a brilliant drive to finish fourth in 2015 behind Sebastian Vettel for Toro Rosso:
“The COTA track is very special, it’s a new track but with a lot of old school corners in it (but with more run off) which makes it really cool to drive.”
The Milton Keynes team should be in for a good weekend and extend their lead over Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship.
Dominic Rust