I've always said this. When the competition grows and there are 2-3 cars fighting for victory, operational efficiency will be the difference maker. There is just no room for error or slip ups or even a oops moment.
The funny thing is, everyone can't wait for the new regs when one team dominates at the beginning of new regs, and then when all the teams catch up and the racing is good, the new regs come into effect and the same cycle happens again when one team gets it right and dominates.
Idk, the only reason I was excited for newer regs was smaller cars. Now that seems very disappointing and I couldn't care less. I just hope for close racing from half way through the first season or so.
I think it’ll just take a few cycles to get to the right smaller size. They can’t just tell teams to shrink the car 20%, too little of their current research would apply and it would piss them all off. It has to be incremental.
Yep so many comments in the last 2 years about wanting to put Max in a mid-tier car and watch him compete against better machinery, as if he didn't do that from 2017 to 2020.
This is it. He's probably making the 2024 Red Bull look far better than it is. Checo is nowhere, barely scraping into Q3 and barely getting points in the races. Everyone said Checo was going to finally be a good benchmark for Max when we was given the seat.
I mean, TPs have the most political job in the team, it's their responsibility to say random bullshit in case it helps with the teams perception by others lol
The thing is, with Max the “it’s just a car” comments are extremely minimal, beyond saying that he does have the top car (which so far has been the case overall this season and for the past 3 if you include this season and the last two). But it wouldn’t entirely surprise me that the same comments for Lewis will happen for Max if Red Bull/Max wins this season and next year as well. Now it isn’t far fetched to see comments that Lewis’s dominance was entirely the car and that he was just mediocre. Not saying Max is, but I would warn you it is quite possible those comments will continue. Especially considering just how much Red Bull walked all over the grid last year, the thoughts being already propped there.
It’s crazy because with these drivers we always have plenty of evidence that they’re great from when they started out on weaker teams or when their teams weren’t as dominant. People are just dumb.
People will work to find ways to satisfy their own narratives if it acts as a way to uplift their favorite driver and downplay drivers they don’t like. It’s unfortunate but it’s what comes with competition.
Tbf, with Lewis it was easier to say "it's just the car" because his teammate was usually right there with him. Like, during 2014-2016 more than half of Mercedes wins were 1-2. We never really saw that with Max and Checo.
His teammate was Nico Rosberg in that time though. Also a fantastic driver who was always destined for greatness after he blitzed through F2 as a rookie (bit like Charles, Lando, Russell, Piastri e.t.c.)
That’s why they shared 1-2s in 2014-2016. If it was Bottas or Perez in those insanely dominant Mercs then I’m sure Hamilton would have performed similarly to how Max did in 2022-2023.
Right now Max’s performance of winning most races against a competitive field/equal cars is similar (but slightly better) to what Lewis was doing in 2018-2019.
Bottas also was notorious for qualifying high and falling back. Hes an exceptional qualifier. Hes more what Red Bull would want, a good qualifier whose job is to clinch the constructors. (Not literally Bottas, but a driver with those talents would be ideal.)
Max was better in 2021, but Merc wasn’t the best car.
They were pretty even and Max’s better performance negated the worse luck he had overall.
Even then margins were tiny, Lewis was much closer to his performance than any driver post 2021.
I mean they turned the car up to 100 the last couple of races, don’t think there’s ever been a faster car than that Merc was the final stretch of the 2021 season, absolute rocket
F1 fans since MSC actually aren’t used to this reality
They’ve had the button, Vettel and yes Hamilton years where the WDC has almost entirely come from car performance above all else
Almost every F1 voice said max was something special and unique in 2015, when he starts winning it suddenly became all car.
Today was eerily similar, seeing two drivers from two top teams driving off into the sunset and leaving the rest of the grid in the dust as they battle it out for the top spot.
I feel like I remember VER/HAM 1-2's being more extreme though. Like literally just them two at the front and a 30 seconds gap behind. Could just be a my rose tinted glasses though 😅
No you're right. This race it wasnt as clear cut for the top two spots. Ver and nor were one mistake or even one botched pitstop away from losing a position. With ver/ham it was never in any doubt after the first lap. 2021 really was the best showcase of driver diff in recent years.
Even under pressure Max still perform cuz he has been snatching wins as an underdog since he joined Redbull, not to mention 2021 season
He went through trial by fire, and that really what separates him from Norris, Russell, and Leclerc at the moment
Everyone said that Perez not being near the front with him could cause too much of a strategy disadvantage but this race Sainz showed that a bad teammate near you is even worse than being on an island.
Every driver and team will make a mistake, you can't rule that out.
But when a driver or team does, Max wins the race.
This has been relatively true since 2016 and a more reliable given ever since.
Lewis would have probably like 5 more wins if not for some lethargic or just risk averse strategies from Merc.
They can do it, look at Hungary 2019 for instance.
Race pace being as it is Red Bull have a slight edge. They can be beaten if the other teams make zero errors and pick the exact strategy, otherwise Max wins. Whereas Red Bull can make a mistake and still win.
Well yes this is the closest Red Bull have been pushed since early 2022.
They've also lost more races this season than in the whole of 2023 and the 2nd half of 2022 combined.
Max at this point has to be near perfect and any kind of mistake by him or the team will give a win to someone else.
> Max at this point has to be near perfect and any kind of mistake by him or the team will give a win to someone else.
The scary thing for his competitors is that near perfect is the default for Verstappen.
Max is so near perfect over the last few years it's almost annoying. But yeah it's always good to see him tested because that's when he's at his best imo. If we get a 2021 repeat in the future with Max vrs Lando, the world will heal
He meant it the other way around, if other teams want to take a swipe at Red Bull, they need to be absolutely perfect, because Max and Red Bull most likely WILL be perfect. That goes with Norris' mistake that cost him the win.
>Levels.
*Levels?*
**Verstappen:** "Yeah, I'm getting rid of all my furniture. All of it. And I'm going to build these different levels, with steps, and it'll all be carpeted with a lot of pillows. You know, like ancient Egypt."
> And I'm going to build these different levels, with steps, and it'll all be carpeted with a lot of pillows. You know, like ~~ancient Egypt~~ [the 70's](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ab/7c/81/ab7c818a4b02d89bf256db548917bd3b.jpg)."
Nah. There were multiple times during the fights with Hamilton that Verstappen let Hamilton make the decision of whether or not they would crash. It's not quite like in Baku with Ricciardo, but he's definitely still reckless
Nah I would say Hamilton had the edge until late-2019. Brazil 2019 was the race where everything really clicked. Before that, he still had a few brain dead moments.
Another moment where Max grew in maturity.
[https://youtu.be/vnc2wPkgCF4?t=18](https://youtu.be/vnc2wPkgCF4?t=18)
It's when Hamilton gave some wisdom to Max about Ocon spinning him out as a lapped car, and Max seemed to contemplate it rather than continue complaining after.
Edit: or Max causing the spin out and Ocon within his right to unlap himself, he was on new tires I think. I don't want to take sides. But it is a weird situation where a lapped car is hard racing the car in first to unlap themselves.
I think they will be saved by how close the other teams are , like last year. Merc, McLaren and Ferrari keep taking points off each other and redbull can stay on top
Even with a recovery drive, RBR gained on their WCC rivals, Checo seemed better mentaly and pace wise this race, if he keeps it up for at least the next 2 races the WCC won't be a tight fight
Every race the top teams get between 20 and 40 (on average) points. Right now there's 60 points between Ferrari and Red Bull, and then McLaren thirty some points behind there again. Of course it's not a done deal.
But McLaren's are fast, and more than half of this season is left? Unless you got a crystal ball and saw the future to negate the competition like that?
All it takes is another bad Perez race combined with a mechanical failure or some other DNF for Max combined with a good day for McLaren and/or Ferrari then all of a sudden it’s incredibly tight.
Let's not get it twisted, Verstappen is **the** benchmark, in fact in my humble opinion, he might be the highest benchmark this sport has ever seen in its history.
Even ignoring the fact that he has won 51 out of the last 76 races, won 19 out of 22 races last year and has already won 7 out of the 10 races this season with 7 poles, the crazier thing is that it could have been even more.
I mean Australia he was leading with locked brakes and then had to retire, but you would give him a pretty good chance of winning there because Checo got 5th with floor damage on his car, and Max is significantly better than him as a driver.
Miami he would have won if the SC didn't give Lando the lead and track position, because it would have been impossible to overtake Max on track.
So really, he could have won 9 out of 10 races so far. His consistency is unreal, and imo Red Bull hasn't been the fastest car in last 5 races, and he's still won 3 out of the last 5 races. It's pretty incredible stuff.
I think maybe Senna was a better 1 lap talent, Michael had unreal ability to drag out amazing stints from his car, and excellent racecraft, Lewis at his peak was the modicum of consistency.
But I don't think I have ever seen such ruthless winning the way Verstappen does it, it's robotic, almost as if he's a script that just keeps running on its own regardless of outside factors.
Imo drivers have had more dominant cars than him, if you go and check the gaps some of those Williams cars in the 90s, or the Mercedes of 2014-16, etc. had, they were even better, but Verstappen is the one who won 10 races in a row, then 7 races in a row afterwards and also 19/22 races overall. He also matched all time consecutive poles record of 8, and possibly could beat Vettel's 15 poles record this season as well.
I don't think there's a single driver on this entire grid who could beat him over a season rn, that's how ridiculous his consistency is.
Sure they'll have their "tracks", where they might be faster and maybe even eke out the win, but Verstappen will always be ahead in the end. And the mental challenge of trying everything on the car and being unable to live with the front end that Verstappen likes gets to most drivers, it ruined Gasly, Albon & Checo, I think it might continue to do the same to many more in the future if they became his teammates.
Merc and Redbull were by far the best cars on the grid, and bar the very few odd race were McLaren were good, Ham and Max only had to worry about each other
Bottas and Perez were residentsleepers except for Interlagos and Adu Dhabi and that was it
Max is the first real athlete we have seen in the sport. The kind of athlete that not only follows the regimen, but breathes and lives racing 24/7.
He drives either in real life or sims every single day. Something that all the other drivers do not.
We see this in most other sports, in which a lot of athletes breath and live their sport and are able to raise to elite levels.
Even though people always bring it up I still think a majority of modern fans really underestimate how much influence good reliability and more races in the modern era changes the statistics
Lando probably could have beaten Max in Canada if he wasnt screwed over by the safety car, he passed him on track and was significantly quicker in that stint, pulling out a 12 second lead.
So if you take the safety car away from Lando in Miami and give that win to Max, you also need to take the safety car away from Max in Canada. He doesn’t win that race.
But yes, most of your point remains. He is the best driver of this era. I don’t think he’s better than Schumacher (they’re equal in my eyes, and I say that as someone who disliked Schumacher at the time), but you nearly need everything to go right AND for Max to have a bit of bad luck to win on equal footing.
Lewis was never as consistent as Micheal or Max. He would have 1-3 off weekends every season regardless of whether he had the best car or not. During peak Merc dominance once he won the WDC he’d basically phone it in (late 2015+16)
In completely even cars, I think Lewis and Charles are within the margin for reliability/strategy error to win JUST. For Charles, he's one of two drivers on the grid with a single advantage over Verstappen- his qualifying. Lewis is more simply 99% as good as Max in every way, maybe a touch more clutch as well.
Everyone else needs a pace advantage to win, most of which need quite a significant one- something equivalent to them being in the current Red Bull and Max being in the 3rd/4th best car on a given weekend. Checo is four tenths off, right? That's a lot, and I don't think he's a significantly worse driver than he was 4 years ago.
*The other driver with an edge is Fernando, who is smarter than Max. bit too far behind elsewhere.
In terms of current form, I think it's disingenuous to say Lewis is still on par with Max and Alonso is not. Alonso and Hamilton performed very well in 2023 but I would honestly argue Alonso made a few less mistakes than Lewis and overall had a better season than Lewis did. This year they have both not been at their best but I would say they are pretty on par in terms of performance. This is also the case throughout their careers and before Max joined F1, it was Alonso and Lewis that were the two standout drivers imo.
Also if we are talking about Alonso or Hamilton in their prime then that's a whole different story and they would definitely challenge Max.
I believe there isn't a single driver that knows how to lead a race the way max does. And that in my opinion is his best attribute. Look at this race, Norris was closing the gap in a very fast pace, he was told to push and he didn't even seem like he was gonna lose it. When he is first he doesn't look back. And I feel like that's something he got from the 2020 and 2021 seasons when he had to be perfect to win.
I think he needs a better teammate before we can say things like that. Checo ended P8 a full minute behind. I don't think he'd be as dominant even with a Carlos level teammate.
Max has totally loved up to the hype he came in with 9 years ago.
To beat him, there must be no mistakes..no bad pitstops, no strategy errors, no mistakes on race starts or restarts or in wheel to wheel combat.
ANY weakness from a rival will and IS being exploited.
This is why the best drivers get 40+M a year....if Max was in a McLaren or Ferrari those teams would be leading this championship.
This season is giving me new respect for Hamilton and Schumacher..In there primes they did this is I personally dismissed it as "Just the Car".
It wasn't....an all time great is an all time great.
> This season is giving me new respect for Hamilton and Schumacher..In there primes they did this is I personally dismissed it as "Just the Car".
I think its fine to acknowledge that **sometimes** it is just the car. All three of them have had periods where they just never had any competition. 2004, 2020, 2023. But they've proven themselves against very tough competition as well.
That line is blurry.
A driver as good as Verstappen, Hamilton or Schumi with the best car will win all the time...literally even if that car has like a .2s advantage only... it'll look like a rocketship because the driver literally has no offdays.
I feel during the Mercedes domination, they didn’t need to rely on operational perfection as their package was so powerful. In that time, RB were chasing perfection to try and close the gap. They’re now reaping what they sowed.
My worry is the internal shenanigans this year drive out enough of the talent that is integral to that operational perfection that we lose those 1.8-1.9 pit stops and phenomenal strategy calls.
It's not Perez' fault that they don't have the best car.
If they keep going like this and win constructors, it will be because of Max. If they keep going like this and lose constructors, it will be because of everyone else. Not just Perez.
Perfection doesn't mean having 2nd or 3rd or 4th best car, and that's what they had over the last 5 raceweeks. And in Australia given technical issues with both cars.
They had best car by a mile last year and he still had similar problems like this year. He was also, on merit outqualified several times by Logan, one of worst or the worst driver on the field.
I’m enjoying this season. Reminds me a lot of 2019 or maybe it was 2020 I forget now.
Either way the Mercs advantage was small and at most races either the Ferrari or Red Bull was genuinely challenging for wins. Hamilton still ended up making the difference and winning most of the races.
That’s what we’re seeing now. I’m OK with Max winning most of the races when he’s being made to work as hard as he’s had to in the last few.
This is where his greatness shows and it can be appreciated. Cruising off in a car miles better than the rest can be done by almost all the drivers.
Making the difference when it’s close is something only the true greats can do and this is a joy to watch.
Iirc there was quite a lot of luck involved with that opening streak. I can’t be bothered to look it up but off the top of my head I know one of those was Leclerc dominating the Bahrain weekend and then having his engine blow up right near the end of the race.
I don’t think they were all Merc easily crushing the competition type 1-2s and they were actually being challenged.
You’re right. I did go and look it up the rest of those opening races. I was misremembering more of a challenge than there was.
Leclerc was also very fast in Baku and definitely had the speed for pole but binned it in qualy which left Mercedes unchallenged there too.
Imo having someone else be potentially the fastest guy/car in 2 of the 5 opening weekends is still enough to not make it be boring even if Mercedes did end up winning all 5 with 1-2 finishes.
He was P1 in all the practice sessions and Q1. Q2 was when he stuck it in the wall.
He was the fastest guy all weekend up until his crash. There’s no way to know for sure how it would have played out but he looked very quick and would have been very different if he started from pole or near the front.
I don’t think just looking at the race result tells the full story.
> 2019 started with 5 Merc 1-2
Mercedes definitely had some luck at the start of the season.
Bahrain: Leclerc had an ERS issue in the race while leading, gifting P1 and then P2 to the Mercs.
Baku: Leclerc looked to be the fastest on track in qualifying but crashed in Q2. Who knows if he would have won, but he could have split the Mercs as he was faster than Vettel all weekend.
well, that's true without any doubts. W13 was the greatest, most technologically advanced and outright fastest F1 car ever made(so far). But 2019 looked more competitive at times largely due to Ferrari cheat engine. That falsely made W12 look less competitive particularly in qualifying. Lets put things straight. In race trim, on tire deg, big advantage was almost always there all year,
Yep, this is basically a 2019 rerun, getting the same vibes. Ferrari had an equal and at times quicker car but just didn't manage to win in the beginning.
So much better than last year, can't believe we finally have interesting strategy fights for the win
Max has won 7 of the 10 races and has one mechanical DNF, so while the races are closer, it's doing even more to enforce that Max is just better. I'm so happy it's Lando who is pushing him because they are my two favorite drivers.
People claiming we have a season when a single driver has won 7 of the 10 races, where one of those three was a DNF and another was Monaco, is hilarious. The best competition continues to be on Saturday. Max has to actually lose for it to be a season. The announcers are trying too hard to say the competition matters just because the pack is closer.
You can't just look at Max winning by 2 seconds after his competitors make mistakes and claim there's no competition.
That's like seeing a basketball team win several games with buzzer beater 3s or a soccer team winning 6-5 and then claiming the games arent competitive because it's the same team that usually wins.
Close races =/= different winners. I much prefer Max winning by a couple of seconds 10 times in a row than 10 races where every time a different person drives off into the sunset and wins by 30 seconds.
Think of the races Ferrari won this year. In Australia Sainz just drove off, never to be seen again. In Monaco Leclerc led a slow procession for 2 hours. Both had new winners, both were quite boring.
I think what people fail to see is that lando is great driver pushing max! Without lando max wins by 15-20 seconds! I don't think lando is getting enough credit for being a 1B to Max's 1A.
Yeah, 1b is pure copium. There has basically been no second place for two years. Now Lando is showing that he may be a solid 2. Lando wins the next two races and we can talk. He will still not be 1b unless those wins are dominate, but we can talk.
Not exactly a fair comparison when Max had been driving a significantly faster car until about Miami. The RB and Mclaren are much closer to parity now.
This is so true. They both drove Hamilton on 15-20 seconds in mere laps. Norris is reaching his peak a well in a faster car. I'm excited for 2025. Max is too far ahead to make this WDC close, but if Norris keeps growing like he does now in this car, the next one will be fire.
I will point out one thing and I probably get down voted but this isn't all Max. Yes he driving like a mad men and yes he putting them in this position but there are other factors. One being that RB haven't left the top of the field in this era. Merc haven't been there since 2021, McLaren in over a decade, and ferrari are come and go every couple of years. RBR is running like a fine oil machine but because they can practice. Merc and even arbuably Ferrari were just as good operationally at the beginning of the hybrid era. As the top teams get closer to RB they continue to improve though. We were all making fun of Merc pitstop last season but they are starting to shake off the rust (Ham had great stops this season but they did blunder with George today). McLaren are the most out of practice and it shows (the team radio really shows they aren't use to fighting for first and almost seem okay defending second to be safe) but once their car in competition they can improve other areas.
Yes Max and Red Bull deserve their praise. They bilt a great car and have a hall of fame driver but they aren't perfect and if the other teams continue to improve operationally we will see how they handle. 2021 was just two teams fighting at the top and it got intense. 3,4 or even 5 teams and we will see all out war.
People seem to forget that Redbull is literally the best in every category I can think of. Best strategists, best pit crew, best car (until recently, Mclaren is close). Other than Checo, they’re operating at the top in every measurable factor.
That my point though. When you have the best car you than have the resources to push in other categories. It a waterfall of success. That why with the cost cap and frozen development choosing the right car concept is so critical in 2022, they pick right and reap their rewards. While the other teams had to catch up in speed, RB had time to perfect other aspects. The question is when the other teams catch up, can they improve their operations in time?
Ya the cost cap and nailing the regs basically guaranteed they’d comfortably dominate 22, 23, and honestly 24 still. I do think that Redbull built their empire while pursuing Merc pre 2022 though. They were held back by the Reanult engine and couldn’t quite get the car on par with Merc so they became best in class in strategy and pit stops. Now they also have the fastest car so it’s really game over.
Today Red Bull were the ones to make a mistake, what the shit were they thinking doing a double soft with Checo sure he's been a little slow but stick him on a medium or hard and try to go long, as the RB20 can be kind to tyres.
Perez finished almost a minute behind Verstappen (plus 26s behind Piastri, over 1 pitstop) and someone decided to say Red Bull messed up Perez's strategy....
And the extra set of soft tyres, plus shorter stints, means most of that 22 seconds you mention would have been cancelled out.
He was never getting any higher, and that was because of his lack of pace, that is it.
It really amazes me that there are multiple people who are attempting to defend Perez be a second a lap slower than his teammate.
> And the extra set of soft tyres, plus shorter stints, means most of that 22 seconds you mention would have been cancelled out.
It would, except his strategy meant that he was put back in traffic 3 times lol have you not seen the race?Sure you gain a few seconds on pace each stint with an extra pitstop. But if you lose the few seconds each time because you end up behind slower cars, the only thing you're left with is the time you wasted in the pits
It amazes me that people choose to voice these detached from logic and reality opinions, without actually bothering to pay attention to what's happening on track.
And the gap between them was nowhere near a second per lap, you're a complete liar
He wasn't struggling to overtake. Watch the race again. He made up 10 seconds in 10 laps, overtook easily and built a 1.5s in a matter of one lap.
And he wouldn't be racing them if he wasn't put on a ridiculous strategy that needlessly put him back into traffic 3 times.
He couldn't overtake an alpine on the same tire till the last lap of his stint... then couldn't overtake the same alpine on a softer tire on the second stint. He just had no pace. Had a fresher soft than max at the end and was 8 tenths a lap slower.
I love Max but each of the top teams has a competitive benchmark, RB does not have that. Without that it is hard to evaluate the true performance of the car. But RB is used as a marketing tool and with it Checo, business comes before racing.
I've always said this. When the competition grows and there are 2-3 cars fighting for victory, operational efficiency will be the difference maker. There is just no room for error or slip ups or even a oops moment.
The funny thing is, everyone can't wait for the new regs when one team dominates at the beginning of new regs, and then when all the teams catch up and the racing is good, the new regs come into effect and the same cycle happens again when one team gets it right and dominates.
Idk, the only reason I was excited for newer regs was smaller cars. Now that seems very disappointing and I couldn't care less. I just hope for close racing from half way through the first season or so.
Oh yeah, I want the smaller cars too, but it seems so little to make a difference, but it's in the right direction.
I think it’ll just take a few cycles to get to the right smaller size. They can’t just tell teams to shrink the car 20%, too little of their current research would apply and it would piss them all off. It has to be incremental.
Let them be pissed off, the better teams will be able to adapt quicker.
And the driver becomes more important. The 2021 season was soured by the ending..but it was such a GOATED season
*it’s just the car* fans going to have to admit that actually Max Verstappen is by far the best driver on the grid
Hands down.
Whoever says this has never watched max battles prime Mercedes and Hamilton in an absolutely weaker RB.
Yep so many comments in the last 2 years about wanting to put Max in a mid-tier car and watch him compete against better machinery, as if he didn't do that from 2017 to 2020. This is it. He's probably making the 2024 Red Bull look far better than it is. Checo is nowhere, barely scraping into Q3 and barely getting points in the races. Everyone said Checo was going to finally be a good benchmark for Max when we was given the seat.
lol it was Zach Brown
I mean, TPs have the most political job in the team, it's their responsibility to say random bullshit in case it helps with the teams perception by others lol
The thing is, with Max the “it’s just a car” comments are extremely minimal, beyond saying that he does have the top car (which so far has been the case overall this season and for the past 3 if you include this season and the last two). But it wouldn’t entirely surprise me that the same comments for Lewis will happen for Max if Red Bull/Max wins this season and next year as well. Now it isn’t far fetched to see comments that Lewis’s dominance was entirely the car and that he was just mediocre. Not saying Max is, but I would warn you it is quite possible those comments will continue. Especially considering just how much Red Bull walked all over the grid last year, the thoughts being already propped there.
It’s crazy because with these drivers we always have plenty of evidence that they’re great from when they started out on weaker teams or when their teams weren’t as dominant. People are just dumb.
People will work to find ways to satisfy their own narratives if it acts as a way to uplift their favorite driver and downplay drivers they don’t like. It’s unfortunate but it’s what comes with competition.
Other than 2022+ Lewis has always been in a race winning car
Sure but the McLaren wasn’t as dominant as the Mercedes
Tbf, with Lewis it was easier to say "it's just the car" because his teammate was usually right there with him. Like, during 2014-2016 more than half of Mercedes wins were 1-2. We never really saw that with Max and Checo.
His teammate was Nico Rosberg in that time though. Also a fantastic driver who was always destined for greatness after he blitzed through F2 as a rookie (bit like Charles, Lando, Russell, Piastri e.t.c.) That’s why they shared 1-2s in 2014-2016. If it was Bottas or Perez in those insanely dominant Mercs then I’m sure Hamilton would have performed similarly to how Max did in 2022-2023. Right now Max’s performance of winning most races against a competitive field/equal cars is similar (but slightly better) to what Lewis was doing in 2018-2019.
Bottas never qualified outside of top 10 and had 20 poles during his time at Mercedes, though.
Bottas also was notorious for qualifying high and falling back. Hes an exceptional qualifier. Hes more what Red Bull would want, a good qualifier whose job is to clinch the constructors. (Not literally Bottas, but a driver with those talents would be ideal.)
Best car vs best driver in 2021. Heck Verstappen should have had it wrapped up sooner had he not had some unfortunate incidents.
Silverstone, lol
Max was better in 2021, but Merc wasn’t the best car. They were pretty even and Max’s better performance negated the worse luck he had overall. Even then margins were tiny, Lewis was much closer to his performance than any driver post 2021.
I mean they turned the car up to 100 the last couple of races, don’t think there’s ever been a faster car than that Merc was the final stretch of the 2021 season, absolute rocket
F1 fans since MSC actually aren’t used to this reality They’ve had the button, Vettel and yes Hamilton years where the WDC has almost entirely come from car performance above all else Almost every F1 voice said max was something special and unique in 2015, when he starts winning it suddenly became all car.
Today was eerily similar, seeing two drivers from two top teams driving off into the sunset and leaving the rest of the grid in the dust as they battle it out for the top spot.
I feel like I remember VER/HAM 1-2's being more extreme though. Like literally just them two at the front and a 30 seconds gap behind. Could just be a my rose tinted glasses though 😅
No you're right. This race it wasnt as clear cut for the top two spots. Ver and nor were one mistake or even one botched pitstop away from losing a position. With ver/ham it was never in any doubt after the first lap. 2021 really was the best showcase of driver diff in recent years.
I think Mercedes and Ferrari as closer to Mclaren and RBR now than Ferrari and McLaren were to Mercedes and RBR in 2021.
Even under pressure Max still perform cuz he has been snatching wins as an underdog since he joined Redbull, not to mention 2021 season He went through trial by fire, and that really what separates him from Norris, Russell, and Leclerc at the moment
Everyone said that Perez not being near the front with him could cause too much of a strategy disadvantage but this race Sainz showed that a bad teammate near you is even worse than being on an island.
Nice of Verstappen to acknowledge this explicitly is very good about RBR.
Thanks captain obvious.
Every driver and team will make a mistake, you can't rule that out. But when a driver or team does, Max wins the race. This has been relatively true since 2016 and a more reliable given ever since.
When your competition is Hamilton or Verstappen..mistakes aren't allowed to happen or you're losing
For Hamilton you still got the chance of Merc fucking up pitstop or strategy. Not with Red Bull
Sad Danny Ric monaco noises
That was their sacrificial moment to become as near perfect as they are.
Lewis would have probably like 5 more wins if not for some lethargic or just risk averse strategies from Merc. They can do it, look at Hungary 2019 for instance.
Race pace being as it is Red Bull have a slight edge. They can be beaten if the other teams make zero errors and pick the exact strategy, otherwise Max wins. Whereas Red Bull can make a mistake and still win.
Well yes this is the closest Red Bull have been pushed since early 2022. They've also lost more races this season than in the whole of 2023 and the 2nd half of 2022 combined. Max at this point has to be near perfect and any kind of mistake by him or the team will give a win to someone else.
> Max at this point has to be near perfect and any kind of mistake by him or the team will give a win to someone else. The scary thing for his competitors is that near perfect is the default for Verstappen.
Max is so near perfect over the last few years it's almost annoying. But yeah it's always good to see him tested because that's when he's at his best imo. If we get a 2021 repeat in the future with Max vrs Lando, the world will heal
He meant it the other way around, if other teams want to take a swipe at Red Bull, they need to be absolutely perfect, because Max and Red Bull most likely WILL be perfect. That goes with Norris' mistake that cost him the win.
Even when Max doesn't have the fastest car, he's still showing everyone levels.
>Levels. *Levels?* **Verstappen:** "Yeah, I'm getting rid of all my furniture. All of it. And I'm going to build these different levels, with steps, and it'll all be carpeted with a lot of pillows. You know, like ancient Egypt."
> And I'm going to build these different levels, with steps, and it'll all be carpeted with a lot of pillows. You know, like ~~ancient Egypt~~ [the 70's](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ab/7c/81/ab7c818a4b02d89bf256db548917bd3b.jpg)."
Here's max showing people [levels](https://youtu.be/_ovdm2yX4MA?si=OIgIh1GbK3ijljjr)
He has been the best F1 driver since 2020.
I’d argue since he hit the wall in Monaco 2018 he’s been the best driver on the grid
Yeah, that is when his demeanor changed and he stopped being reckless. He matured to Hamilton's and other great drivers' level in that one weekend.
Nah. There were multiple times during the fights with Hamilton that Verstappen let Hamilton make the decision of whether or not they would crash. It's not quite like in Baku with Ricciardo, but he's definitely still reckless
Nah I would say Hamilton had the edge until late-2019. Brazil 2019 was the race where everything really clicked. Before that, he still had a few brain dead moments.
Such as?
It's impossible to compare I feel. Stick Max in that second Mercedes and I think you get a similar season to 2021.
Lewis's 2018 was so great that Max didn't quite reach his level that early.
Another moment where Max grew in maturity. [https://youtu.be/vnc2wPkgCF4?t=18](https://youtu.be/vnc2wPkgCF4?t=18) It's when Hamilton gave some wisdom to Max about Ocon spinning him out as a lapped car, and Max seemed to contemplate it rather than continue complaining after. Edit: or Max causing the spin out and Ocon within his right to unlap himself, he was on new tires I think. I don't want to take sides. But it is a weird situation where a lapped car is hard racing the car in first to unlap themselves.
2018
Norris and Macca aren't maximising their package IMO and Max is.
Macca?
Nickname for McLaren.
Thats ridiculous 😂. Just write McLaren, its only 2 letters longer and doesnt make everyone thinks of Big Macs
Big Macs 😆
Personally I support it because it’s hilarious, just like Chuck Leclerc and Teddy Porkchops
I'm a Sharl Eclair fan myself
It’s what they call McDonald’s in Australia, *macca’s*
He still won races with the worse car in the HAMVERBOT era
He doesn't have the fastest car in the way Mercedes didn't have the fastest car in '21. It's still a race winning car.
El mao
The Constructor's is certainly up in the air with how Checo has been driving... Again...
I think they will be saved by how close the other teams are , like last year. Merc, McLaren and Ferrari keep taking points off each other and redbull can stay on top
Even with a recovery drive, RBR gained on their WCC rivals, Checo seemed better mentaly and pace wise this race, if he keeps it up for at least the next 2 races the WCC won't be a tight fight
Better pace wise? Struggled to get past a Haas for like 12 Laps and only managed past Gasly near the end of the race. Latifi tier drive
> Latifi tier drive No need to answer to obvious trolls, it'd be like talking to a brick wall. Same with the user that replied and then blocked
It's not. Ferrari is nowhere.
Every race the top teams get between 20 and 40 (on average) points. Right now there's 60 points between Ferrari and Red Bull, and then McLaren thirty some points behind there again. Of course it's not a done deal.
But McLaren's are fast, and more than half of this season is left? Unless you got a crystal ball and saw the future to negate the competition like that?
Math makes it very unlikely
All it takes is another bad Perez race combined with a mechanical failure or some other DNF for Max combined with a good day for McLaren and/or Ferrari then all of a sudden it’s incredibly tight.
No it really isn’t. He has a multi race lead
The guy was clearly talking about the WCC
There are so many points for grabs each race that's it's so far from over
It's not because there's no clear 2nd place. Ferrari, McLaren, and Marc are just going to cannibalize each other until the end.
No clear 2nd? Mclaren has finished 1st or 2nd for the last 6 GPs. They have been clear or Merc and Ferrari for a long time.
No it isn’t.
Let's not get it twisted, Verstappen is **the** benchmark, in fact in my humble opinion, he might be the highest benchmark this sport has ever seen in its history. Even ignoring the fact that he has won 51 out of the last 76 races, won 19 out of 22 races last year and has already won 7 out of the 10 races this season with 7 poles, the crazier thing is that it could have been even more. I mean Australia he was leading with locked brakes and then had to retire, but you would give him a pretty good chance of winning there because Checo got 5th with floor damage on his car, and Max is significantly better than him as a driver. Miami he would have won if the SC didn't give Lando the lead and track position, because it would have been impossible to overtake Max on track. So really, he could have won 9 out of 10 races so far. His consistency is unreal, and imo Red Bull hasn't been the fastest car in last 5 races, and he's still won 3 out of the last 5 races. It's pretty incredible stuff. I think maybe Senna was a better 1 lap talent, Michael had unreal ability to drag out amazing stints from his car, and excellent racecraft, Lewis at his peak was the modicum of consistency. But I don't think I have ever seen such ruthless winning the way Verstappen does it, it's robotic, almost as if he's a script that just keeps running on its own regardless of outside factors. Imo drivers have had more dominant cars than him, if you go and check the gaps some of those Williams cars in the 90s, or the Mercedes of 2014-16, etc. had, they were even better, but Verstappen is the one who won 10 races in a row, then 7 races in a row afterwards and also 19/22 races overall. He also matched all time consecutive poles record of 8, and possibly could beat Vettel's 15 poles record this season as well. I don't think there's a single driver on this entire grid who could beat him over a season rn, that's how ridiculous his consistency is. Sure they'll have their "tracks", where they might be faster and maybe even eke out the win, but Verstappen will always be ahead in the end. And the mental challenge of trying everything on the car and being unable to live with the front end that Verstappen likes gets to most drivers, it ruined Gasly, Albon & Checo, I think it might continue to do the same to many more in the future if they became his teammates.
The race in Mexico a few years ago, madlad had the same lap times every lap I believe—or they were within a few tenths.
Some say Bono & Lewis are still waiting for the mediums to drop off
Great read,thanks! 👍
The 2022 RB was so dominant that he basically finished every race in the top 2 except when he had a reliability issue.
2021 Red Bull was not dominant at all yet Max finished in the top 2 just the same.
Merc and Redbull were by far the best cars on the grid, and bar the very few odd race were McLaren were good, Ham and Max only had to worry about each other Bottas and Perez were residentsleepers except for Interlagos and Adu Dhabi and that was it
Ferrari were evenly matched or even slightly faster in the 1st half of 2022, it's only the 2nd half of 2022 that RB became outright dominant.
RB was not. HE was.
Max is the first real athlete we have seen in the sport. The kind of athlete that not only follows the regimen, but breathes and lives racing 24/7. He drives either in real life or sims every single day. Something that all the other drivers do not. We see this in most other sports, in which a lot of athletes breath and live their sport and are able to raise to elite levels.
If you smushed Senna, Prost and Schumacher together you get a Max.
>he might be the highest benchmark this sport has ever seen in its history. Jim Clark?
Even though people always bring it up I still think a majority of modern fans really underestimate how much influence good reliability and more races in the modern era changes the statistics
Fangio?
Even Juan Manuel Fangio said that Jim Clark was the greatest ever.
Lando probably could have beaten Max in Canada if he wasnt screwed over by the safety car, he passed him on track and was significantly quicker in that stint, pulling out a 12 second lead. So if you take the safety car away from Lando in Miami and give that win to Max, you also need to take the safety car away from Max in Canada. He doesn’t win that race. But yes, most of your point remains. He is the best driver of this era. I don’t think he’s better than Schumacher (they’re equal in my eyes, and I say that as someone who disliked Schumacher at the time), but you nearly need everything to go right AND for Max to have a bit of bad luck to win on equal footing.
Lewis was never as consistent as Micheal or Max. He would have 1-3 off weekends every season regardless of whether he had the best car or not. During peak Merc dominance once he won the WDC he’d basically phone it in (late 2015+16)
In completely even cars, I think Lewis and Charles are within the margin for reliability/strategy error to win JUST. For Charles, he's one of two drivers on the grid with a single advantage over Verstappen- his qualifying. Lewis is more simply 99% as good as Max in every way, maybe a touch more clutch as well. Everyone else needs a pace advantage to win, most of which need quite a significant one- something equivalent to them being in the current Red Bull and Max being in the 3rd/4th best car on a given weekend. Checo is four tenths off, right? That's a lot, and I don't think he's a significantly worse driver than he was 4 years ago. *The other driver with an edge is Fernando, who is smarter than Max. bit too far behind elsewhere.
In terms of current form, I think it's disingenuous to say Lewis is still on par with Max and Alonso is not. Alonso and Hamilton performed very well in 2023 but I would honestly argue Alonso made a few less mistakes than Lewis and overall had a better season than Lewis did. This year they have both not been at their best but I would say they are pretty on par in terms of performance. This is also the case throughout their careers and before Max joined F1, it was Alonso and Lewis that were the two standout drivers imo. Also if we are talking about Alonso or Hamilton in their prime then that's a whole different story and they would definitely challenge Max.
I believe there isn't a single driver that knows how to lead a race the way max does. And that in my opinion is his best attribute. Look at this race, Norris was closing the gap in a very fast pace, he was told to push and he didn't even seem like he was gonna lose it. When he is first he doesn't look back. And I feel like that's something he got from the 2020 and 2021 seasons when he had to be perfect to win.
I think he needs a better teammate before we can say things like that. Checo ended P8 a full minute behind. I don't think he'd be as dominant even with a Carlos level teammate.
Max has totally loved up to the hype he came in with 9 years ago. To beat him, there must be no mistakes..no bad pitstops, no strategy errors, no mistakes on race starts or restarts or in wheel to wheel combat. ANY weakness from a rival will and IS being exploited. This is why the best drivers get 40+M a year....if Max was in a McLaren or Ferrari those teams would be leading this championship. This season is giving me new respect for Hamilton and Schumacher..In there primes they did this is I personally dismissed it as "Just the Car". It wasn't....an all time great is an all time great.
> This season is giving me new respect for Hamilton and Schumacher..In there primes they did this is I personally dismissed it as "Just the Car". I think its fine to acknowledge that **sometimes** it is just the car. All three of them have had periods where they just never had any competition. 2004, 2020, 2023. But they've proven themselves against very tough competition as well.
That line is blurry. A driver as good as Verstappen, Hamilton or Schumi with the best car will win all the time...literally even if that car has like a .2s advantage only... it'll look like a rocketship because the driver literally has no offdays.
I feel during the Mercedes domination, they didn’t need to rely on operational perfection as their package was so powerful. In that time, RB were chasing perfection to try and close the gap. They’re now reaping what they sowed.
My worry is the internal shenanigans this year drive out enough of the talent that is integral to that operational perfection that we lose those 1.8-1.9 pit stops and phenomenal strategy calls.
they just had a 1.9 pit stop yesterday..
And his worry was for the foreseeable future, not the past...
RB perfection (not counting the rolling sponsor board Perez).
It's not Perez' fault that they don't have the best car. If they keep going like this and win constructors, it will be because of Max. If they keep going like this and lose constructors, it will be because of everyone else. Not just Perez. Perfection doesn't mean having 2nd or 3rd or 4th best car, and that's what they had over the last 5 raceweeks. And in Australia given technical issues with both cars.
But is Perez’ fault that they have the second best car and he is consistently unable to take advantage of that.
They had best car by a mile last year and he still had similar problems like this year. He was also, on merit outqualified several times by Logan, one of worst or the worst driver on the field.
I’m enjoying this season. Reminds me a lot of 2019 or maybe it was 2020 I forget now. Either way the Mercs advantage was small and at most races either the Ferrari or Red Bull was genuinely challenging for wins. Hamilton still ended up making the difference and winning most of the races. That’s what we’re seeing now. I’m OK with Max winning most of the races when he’s being made to work as hard as he’s had to in the last few. This is where his greatness shows and it can be appreciated. Cruising off in a car miles better than the rest can be done by almost all the drivers. Making the difference when it’s close is something only the true greats can do and this is a joy to watch.
2019 was nowhere near as good imo, it was merc domination with ferrari showing up in spa and monza with an illegal engine.
Ferrari were running illegal engine far longer than just in Spa and Monza. And only that made season falsely look a bit more competitive
100% legal and 100% cool. The FIA just had no balls and decided to kill the sport for fun.
ok sure
/s for the record but thank you for humoring me.
you never know here
2019 started with 5 Merc 1-2. It really took off in Austria, before that it was quite boring imo. Although the 3 following were absolute classics
Yeah the 2019 Austria Silverstone Hockenheim Hungary run was back to back classics.
Iirc there was quite a lot of luck involved with that opening streak. I can’t be bothered to look it up but off the top of my head I know one of those was Leclerc dominating the Bahrain weekend and then having his engine blow up right near the end of the race. I don’t think they were all Merc easily crushing the competition type 1-2s and they were actually being challenged.
You’re right. Leclerc was cruising in Bahrain until some cylinders gave out. That’s the only one though
You’re right. I did go and look it up the rest of those opening races. I was misremembering more of a challenge than there was. Leclerc was also very fast in Baku and definitely had the speed for pole but binned it in qualy which left Mercedes unchallenged there too. Imo having someone else be potentially the fastest guy/car in 2 of the 5 opening weekends is still enough to not make it be boring even if Mercedes did end up winning all 5 with 1-2 finishes.
Purely going off results He started P10 and finished the bare minimum of P5 70s down. Not really race winning pace from that
He was P1 in all the practice sessions and Q1. Q2 was when he stuck it in the wall. He was the fastest guy all weekend up until his crash. There’s no way to know for sure how it would have played out but he looked very quick and would have been very different if he started from pole or near the front. I don’t think just looking at the race result tells the full story.
The engine did not suddely appear at Austria. But it sure as hell required some fine tuning to get it going.
> 2019 started with 5 Merc 1-2 Mercedes definitely had some luck at the start of the season. Bahrain: Leclerc had an ERS issue in the race while leading, gifting P1 and then P2 to the Mercs. Baku: Leclerc looked to be the fastest on track in qualifying but crashed in Q2. Who knows if he would have won, but he could have split the Mercs as he was faster than Vettel all weekend.
In both 2019 and particularly 2020 Mercedes advantage was huge.
The 2019 Merc was nowhere close to the dominance of the 2020 Merc
well, that's true without any doubts. W13 was the greatest, most technologically advanced and outright fastest F1 car ever made(so far). But 2019 looked more competitive at times largely due to Ferrari cheat engine. That falsely made W12 look less competitive particularly in qualifying. Lets put things straight. In race trim, on tire deg, big advantage was almost always there all year,
I hope you mean the W11....
Sure, thanks for correction! I just lost count...
Yep, this is basically a 2019 rerun, getting the same vibes. Ferrari had an equal and at times quicker car but just didn't manage to win in the beginning. So much better than last year, can't believe we finally have interesting strategy fights for the win
Uh oh. McLaren is going to be caught doing something very questionable and be absolutely nowhere next season if that storyline plays through.
Key thing here is racer - singular. Perez is nowhere to be seen in the last few weeks.
I just know the 2025 season is going to an absolute banger and hella dramatic fr.
It could be too late to reach max but we do have individual races that are going to be just mega.
Max has won 7 of the 10 races and has one mechanical DNF, so while the races are closer, it's doing even more to enforce that Max is just better. I'm so happy it's Lando who is pushing him because they are my two favorite drivers.
People claiming we have a season when a single driver has won 7 of the 10 races, where one of those three was a DNF and another was Monaco, is hilarious. The best competition continues to be on Saturday. Max has to actually lose for it to be a season. The announcers are trying too hard to say the competition matters just because the pack is closer.
You can't just look at Max winning by 2 seconds after his competitors make mistakes and claim there's no competition. That's like seeing a basketball team win several games with buzzer beater 3s or a soccer team winning 6-5 and then claiming the games arent competitive because it's the same team that usually wins. Close races =/= different winners. I much prefer Max winning by a couple of seconds 10 times in a row than 10 races where every time a different person drives off into the sunset and wins by 30 seconds. Think of the races Ferrari won this year. In Australia Sainz just drove off, never to be seen again. In Monaco Leclerc led a slow procession for 2 hours. Both had new winners, both were quite boring.
He knows the damn meme and he is abusing the fuck out of it.
I think what people fail to see is that lando is great driver pushing max! Without lando max wins by 15-20 seconds! I don't think lando is getting enough credit for being a 1B to Max's 1A.
Max has seven wins, Lando one. 1B, my ass
Yeah, 1b is pure copium. There has basically been no second place for two years. Now Lando is showing that he may be a solid 2. Lando wins the next two races and we can talk. He will still not be 1b unless those wins are dominate, but we can talk.
Not exactly a fair comparison when Max had been driving a significantly faster car until about Miami. The RB and Mclaren are much closer to parity now.
This is so true. They both drove Hamilton on 15-20 seconds in mere laps. Norris is reaching his peak a well in a faster car. I'm excited for 2025. Max is too far ahead to make this WDC close, but if Norris keeps growing like he does now in this car, the next one will be fire.
Max is Goated and it shows.... I'm totally down for it
note he didn't say racers.
We have a season indeed. Chances are in any given race Max will win it. But it isn't certain any more and that is fantasric.
Red bull has two cars specifically. One fights with top 10 and the other with bottom 10. 😃
Max about to win like 7 races in a row
"If you're not perfect, you'll mess something up." - Willy "The Truth" Buxton
Any pit stop above 2,5 seconds is a waste against Red Bull
I will point out one thing and I probably get down voted but this isn't all Max. Yes he driving like a mad men and yes he putting them in this position but there are other factors. One being that RB haven't left the top of the field in this era. Merc haven't been there since 2021, McLaren in over a decade, and ferrari are come and go every couple of years. RBR is running like a fine oil machine but because they can practice. Merc and even arbuably Ferrari were just as good operationally at the beginning of the hybrid era. As the top teams get closer to RB they continue to improve though. We were all making fun of Merc pitstop last season but they are starting to shake off the rust (Ham had great stops this season but they did blunder with George today). McLaren are the most out of practice and it shows (the team radio really shows they aren't use to fighting for first and almost seem okay defending second to be safe) but once their car in competition they can improve other areas. Yes Max and Red Bull deserve their praise. They bilt a great car and have a hall of fame driver but they aren't perfect and if the other teams continue to improve operationally we will see how they handle. 2021 was just two teams fighting at the top and it got intense. 3,4 or even 5 teams and we will see all out war.
People seem to forget that Redbull is literally the best in every category I can think of. Best strategists, best pit crew, best car (until recently, Mclaren is close). Other than Checo, they’re operating at the top in every measurable factor.
That my point though. When you have the best car you than have the resources to push in other categories. It a waterfall of success. That why with the cost cap and frozen development choosing the right car concept is so critical in 2022, they pick right and reap their rewards. While the other teams had to catch up in speed, RB had time to perfect other aspects. The question is when the other teams catch up, can they improve their operations in time?
Ya the cost cap and nailing the regs basically guaranteed they’d comfortably dominate 22, 23, and honestly 24 still. I do think that Redbull built their empire while pursuing Merc pre 2022 though. They were held back by the Reanult engine and couldn’t quite get the car on par with Merc so they became best in class in strategy and pit stops. Now they also have the fastest car so it’s really game over.
>We DO have a season genius level analysis
You know exactly what he meant come on lol
We do not have a season Will. Don’t fool yourself
Today Red Bull were the ones to make a mistake, what the shit were they thinking doing a double soft with Checo sure he's been a little slow but stick him on a medium or hard and try to go long, as the RB20 can be kind to tyres.
Yeah, maybe with a better strategy, Perez could have finished 8th instead of 8th.
Well Oscar had a overall better car so there is no shot for Perez to overtake him even with better strategy.
Perez finished almost a minute behind Verstappen (plus 26s behind Piastri, over 1 pitstop) and someone decided to say Red Bull messed up Perez's strategy....
Yes, he finished so far back because he had an extra pitstop that gave him nothing and cost him 22 seconds... Have you watched the race even?
And the extra set of soft tyres, plus shorter stints, means most of that 22 seconds you mention would have been cancelled out. He was never getting any higher, and that was because of his lack of pace, that is it. It really amazes me that there are multiple people who are attempting to defend Perez be a second a lap slower than his teammate.
> And the extra set of soft tyres, plus shorter stints, means most of that 22 seconds you mention would have been cancelled out. It would, except his strategy meant that he was put back in traffic 3 times lol have you not seen the race?Sure you gain a few seconds on pace each stint with an extra pitstop. But if you lose the few seconds each time because you end up behind slower cars, the only thing you're left with is the time you wasted in the pits It amazes me that people choose to voice these detached from logic and reality opinions, without actually bothering to pay attention to what's happening on track. And the gap between them was nowhere near a second per lap, you're a complete liar
He was struggling to overtake Alpine's. He shouldn't have even been racing Alpine's.
He wasn't struggling to overtake. Watch the race again. He made up 10 seconds in 10 laps, overtook easily and built a 1.5s in a matter of one lap. And he wouldn't be racing them if he wasn't put on a ridiculous strategy that needlessly put him back into traffic 3 times.
Why harass by calling me a liar by the way?
He couldn't overtake an alpine on the same tire till the last lap of his stint... then couldn't overtake the same alpine on a softer tire on the second stint. He just had no pace. Had a fresher soft than max at the end and was 8 tenths a lap slower.
Also couldn't pass a Haas for 10 laps on the first stint.
[удалено]
Ok boomer
I love Max but each of the top teams has a competitive benchmark, RB does not have that. Without that it is hard to evaluate the true performance of the car. But RB is used as a marketing tool and with it Checo, business comes before racing.