Max Verstappen, winner of the last two GPs and the firm leader in the Formula 1 world championship, will be looking to make it three this weekend at Britain’s Silverstone circuit, where he retired last season after a collision with Lewis Hamilton. The 24-year-old Dutchman heads into his 10th round of the season (out of 22) with a 46-point lead over his Red Bull team-mate, Mexican Sergio Perez, in the drivers’ standings.
A lead he will clearly be keen to consolidate, even if he has had a frustrated relationship with the circuit since arriving in F1 in 2015, alternating between podiums and retirement. He was forced to retire last year after being thrown into the wall by Lewis Hamilton, an incident that came to light this week when an interview with former Brazilian champion Nelson Piquet was revealed in which he urged the Briton:little black“.
In 2020, Verstappen finished 2nd, then took victory the following week at the F1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at the same track. When he didn’t give up, Batavian finished fifth as the worst ranked player of 2019.
“Performance this weekend will depend on our ability to find the right balance and we will also need a good tire strategy as degradation will be high there.”, a dawning analysis of Verstappen’s season in search of his 7th win of the season. Already… And be warned.There are a lot of things we need to sort out this weekend, it won’t be a walk in the park“.
After a mixed start to the season mainly due to reliability issues, “crazyis now in pole position to win the world title. His showing in Canada and Azerbaijan in June, two races he dominated by a head and shoulders, is testament to that.
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Behind, Charles Leclerc and Ferrari, who dominated the championship at the start of the season, are now well behind Red Bull; 76 points separate the two teams, and Leclerc, who fell to the third place in the championship, is 49 points behind Verstappen. Almost two pranksters knowing in advance that a win is worth 25 points.
Failed strategy, questionable reliability… in recent weeks the Scuderia has let its Austrian rival fly in the championship and today has no room for error if it wants to challenge the rival. “We weren’t euphoric at the start of the season, so we’re not going to fall nowScuderia chief Mattia Binotto said in mid-June.
Mercedes, who sit a modest third in the championship at the historic English track, are still waiting for their comeback, while their drivers, Britain’s George Russell and seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton, are fourth and sixth in the championship.
The team, based in Brackley, very close to Silverstone, will therefore be looking to get in good shape at home, due to a number of modifications to the W13 and thus (finally) taming its single seater to its original aerodynamics.
“We know that the top two teams have a huge advantage, so our task is to close that gap. Silverstone has passed us before, we have improvements and it’s a smoother track“, his manager, Toto Wolf, assured. It’s enough to seeSir Lewis“and”Mr. Georgereturn to the front of the stage.
Source: Le Figaro
