The "subtle" Red Bull upgrades that kept it in the Portugal F1 mix

Red Bull's Portuguese Grand Prix fortunes were decidedly second best to Mercedes', but the result skews the potential that the team had at Portimao. With a new set of updates, the team looks good going forward into the rest of 2021's spicy F1 competition

Jake Boxall-Legge May 3, 2021, 1:46 PM

The final Portuguese Grand Prix race result, on paper, doesn't entirely reflect kindly on Red Bull. Max Verstappen's late stop to gun for the fastest lap, which proved futile after once again failing to dance with the track limits devil, left him some way behind winner Lewis Hamilton.

In that, it was a weekend of near-misses at Red Bull. Verstappen could have got pole, had he not exceeded track limits on his quickest qualifying time. He could have taken fastest lap, had he not overcooked it on the exit of Turn 14. Feeling that losing the time to track limits was "odd, as they weren't monitoring [Turn] 14" - despite an FIA directive adding it to the corners under scrutiny – Verstappen also didn't seem to be abundantly happy with finishing second.

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Author Jake Boxall-Legge

Jake Boxall-Legge Autosport’s Technical Editor. Having studied Automotive Engineering with Motorsport at the University of Hertfordshire, West Country-born Jake's original ambition was to design racing cars. During a year between studies in which he accidentally rekindled a love of writing, he took up a Master's in Motorsport Engineering at Oxford Brookes. Halfway through his master's year, he was offered a place on the Autosport Academy, conducting occasional freelance duties before becoming the press officer for Formula 2 and GP3 in 2018. Autosport offered him a return to the fold later that year to serve as its Technical Editor. His voice appears on a number of videos and podcasts, and can often be found writing about terrible Formula 1 cars in excruciating detail. In his spare time, Jake enjoys baking and blames his failure to make it past the Great British Bake-Off interviews on his tenuous grasp on choux pastry. His dream is to open a brunch cafe - and his willingness to make outrageous puns in inappropriate situations has earned him the contempt of his colleagues.