Fernando Alonso, Alpine, Red Bull Ring, 2021

Verstappen “performing better” than Hamilton in title fight – Alonso

2021 Austrian Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by and

Fernando Alonso has tipped Max Verstappen to win the championship this year, saying the Red Bull driver is out-performing rival Lewis Hamilton.

After eight of a scheduled 23 races, Verstappen holds an 18-point lead in the standings, and has won four races to Hamilton’s three.

Two-times world champion Alonso, who is a distant 11th in the standings, said the title fight is “very interesting from the outside to follow and to watch”, and is pleased Hamilton is up against serious competition this year.

“At least we don’t have like previous years that it was Lewis against Lewis and sometimes Valtteri [Bottas], but not often,” he said.

“So at the moment we have a more interesting championship so we can follow with a little bit more adrenaline until Abu Dhabi. I think that’s a good thing.

“[My] favourite at the moment probably is Max, because he’s performing better. But things can change quickly depending on the performance of all the teams and the updates to the car, et cetera. So we will follow from a distance.”

Alonso, who partnered Hamilton at McLaren in 2007, said he would like the opportunity to drive alongside Verstappen in the same team one day as well.

“Probably we still have an opportunity in the future. Maybe not in Formula 1, honestly, because I don’t think that’s a possibility.

“But in the future, who knows? I think both of us love racing and endurance racing and Le Mans and many thinsg so it will be nice one day to share a team.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2021 Austrian Grand Prix

Browse all 2021 Austrian Grand Prix articles

55 comments on “Verstappen “performing better” than Hamilton in title fight – Alonso”

  1. Alonso – Norris – Verstappen as a Le Mans team :-))))

    1. Amen to that!

    2. That would be immense

    3. I just had to change my trousers!

  2. I can’t wait for some insecure fans to dismiss this comment by Alonso as bitterness, despite the fact that Nando has been very complimentary towards Lewis in the last few years.

    Anyway, Alonso called Verstappen the best driver in F1 back in November 2019. He knows talent when he sees it.

    1. Rodric Ewulf
      1st July 2021, 17:49

      Some people want 2007 to last forever, apparently. Fernando already had said Lewis was one of the greatest of all time but they flat-out ignored it. And there’s no doubt his affirmation that Max is performing better than Lewis will not be ignored by those noobie fans and favourable media, as a dig on Lewis.

      1. I remember when Alonso said in late 2011, that Hamilton was better than Vettel. This was after Hamilton had the worst season of his career and Vettel had an unbelievable season. In hindsight, it turns out he was right.

        Now Alonso has stated on numerous occasions that Verstappen is better than Hamilton. He said it in November 2019, May 2021, and again today.

        He’s right about Verstappen > Hamilton, just like he was right about Hamilton > Vettel.

        Alonso is an excellent judge of talent.

        1. Rodric Ewulf
          1st July 2021, 18:19

          It’s a matter of looking the whole picture and not only making some immediatist analysis. For instance, the colapse of not only Ferrari but also Sebastian Vettel from late 2018 to 2020 was actually not a surprise as huge as many pundits suggested, because there was a precedent of Sebastian not performing so well when not enjoying the benefit of an all-conquering machine. It was his slump in form during 2014 season after winning many races in a row with a dominant Red Bull in the previous year. They were eluded by his Toro Rosso win in 2008 but it was due specific factors, whilst his 2014 debacle was unexplainable for a 4-times world champion if he would be in solid form. He had many highs but also rather frequent lows in racing consistency even when he was winning all titles, but it all went unnoticed because of a dominant car. Fernando was one of those who identified that, albeit with his own interests playing, but still it was accurate and others discovered it too late. It’s early to tell but maybe Hamilton is following the same path of a multi-champion who thinks he doesn’t need to improve, and if happens this way, it’s just a matter of time for him to fade.

          1. ian dearing
            1st July 2021, 18:29

            What Hamilton is doing this year can only be done if you are at the highest level. And I don’t know if everything he is doing is valued enough.

          2. Rodric Ewulf Not sure why you are saying Seb’s form in 2014 was unexplainable. He went from having the WCC and WDC car, to having a dog by comparison. LH is lucky to have had 7 straight years of his car and still in his 8th it is win-capable. He has never experienced having his great car ripped away from him and replaced by an unrecognizable one from one season to the next. Max is in his first year of having a potentially WCC/WDC car. He has only previously had cars capable at some tracks. As we know, so very much depends on the car.

          3. Rodric Ewulf
            1st July 2021, 20:01

            Robbie It was not explainable for a multi-champion potentially GOAT to perform like that, and people regarded Vettel that way back then. Just a few analysts had noticed before this season the cracks on his form when being challanged more equally or in an inferior machinery, and we saw many denying as late as 2019 that Vettel had been flattered by superfast cars.

          4. What is he doing, ian? He’s been driving worse than the last few years, and this coincides with competition.

          5. ian dearing
            1st July 2021, 20:49

            Ask Alonso @esploratore1 Alonso said it a few weeks ago about Hamilton; and so many are holding him in high esteem over his driver evaluations I thought it worth repeating.

          6. Rodric Ewulf No it had to be extremely hard not just to no longer have such a great car, but to get himself up for driving such a dog after that. It had to be so disheartening. And imho, 1 WDC is an amazing achievement let alone 4, and while nobody is categorizing SV among the greats, he still did great when he had the equipment. He didn’t squander it. I’m not trying to excuse the mistakes he has made at Ferrari. Just that I feel for him for 2014. That had to be so tough.

          7. Rodric Ewulf
            1st July 2021, 23:36

            Robbie Of course it’s difficult to drag slower cars around but when I point out to Vettel’s underperformance in 2014 is not because he couldn’t fight for the title, as Mercedes were already dominating. But did you forget that Ricciardo heavily outscored him (238-167) that season? This is what’s unacceptable for a multi-champion if the claim is he’s still top level, let alone GOAT aspirant. Many took that as a blip, but soon more evidence appeared that it was a little more than that. As for Alonso he almost always extracted the most of his car in terms of performance, no matter how crappy it was, and the very rare times that he was beaten by a team-mate it wasn’t for more than a few points. The same simply cannot be said about Vettel. In fact, Vettel’s performances since long ago have been following the unusual trend of the better his car, the brighter his performances, and almost proportionally the more tricky to drive is his car, as much quickly he flops, especially when facing serious competition like Ricciardo in 2014 and Leclerc in 2019 and 2020.

        2. @kingshark
          You just have to see what Alonso have said on Vettel after he won his 4th consecutive title in 2013 when the whole world were saying Vettel is a legend and the narrative especially in the British media was that he is an unbeatable champion and was many times compared to Ayrton Senna, Schumacher and Fangio. The guy was spot on !!!

          https://youtu.be/jYOM0v6ajRE

    2. Dave (@davewillisporter)
      1st July 2021, 18:18

      @kingshark to be clear he didn’t say Max was better, he said he was performing better. Every driver on the grid knows they are both formidable opponents. Alonso has the belief that he himself is the best! I’ll leave it to others to surmise whether that is true or not. Is Alonso right on that one?

      1. @davewillisporter
        Alonso has called Verstappen the outright best driver on the grid before, he did after Brazil 2019.

        Alonso has the belief that he himself is the best! I’ll leave it to others to surmise whether that is true or not. Is Alonso right on that one?

        Ranking yourself as the best is obviously not the same as ranking two other drivers. Alonso is an unbiased observer in the Hamilton vs Verstappen debate.

        1. Dave (@davewillisporter)
          1st July 2021, 18:52

          @kingshark I think you’ll find he now rates George as most impressive. That was 2020 and 2021! You’ve always got to take what Alonso says with a pinch of salt. He’s a very political animal. All he said in this context is Max is currently outperforming Lewis which is a correct assessment. Taking his opinion on who is ultimately the best as gospel is a mistake as he always believes he is better than whoever he points out as being better than someone else. I don’t think he is correct in that context but he is correct in this. Ultimately, the season will judge who is the best, not Alonso!

          1. Rodric Ewulf
            1st July 2021, 19:33

            No one is taking him like a prophet here, to an extent that we admit he may be wrong. Agreeing with him a couple of times doesn’t imply we always will. That’s plain simple.

            I think you’ll find he now rates George as most impressive. That was 2020 and 2021! You’ve always got to take what Alonso says with a pinch of salt. He’s a very political animal.

            I’ve heard that before from a pundit on the media, not quite as a coincidence it was British media. But take a minute to think if Hamilton isn’t also a “political animal” in Formula 1. Seriously, that’s straight forward if you do it in good faith. The one who has not been political but only team labourer is Bottas, and look what it brought him as a result. Even him is dumping that good harmony approach. Anyone who wants to be great in Formula 1 has to stick to their guns, it’s not a matter of being right or wrong, that’s just how the sport is. And someone who thinks that Lewis has somehow changed that or made things different is just dellusional.
            Here we never pretended Fernando didn’t had his own interests coming first, it would be rather ingenuous, but it doesn’t make what he says less valid or suspicious to the point of not being worth of consideration. That amounts to an ad hominem fallacy

      2. @Robbie Re:

        ‘LH is lucky to have had 7 straight years of his car and still in his 8th it is win-capable. He has never experienced having his great car ripped away from him and replaced by an unrecognizable one from one season to the next.’

        How about 2009 then?

        1. Well said David

          On top of that – Dan won three races and it was second in the constructors championship. Hardly a total dog or even in the same category as the 2009 Macca. That car spent more than half the year qualifying at the back of the grid yet being dragged to the front by someone who should have been broken in Robbies world. @robbie

          Once Macca had figured the had the front wing working the wrong way round, Kers and some sublime driving got three wins out of what was a back of the grid car. No one gives Hamilton any due for what I have always thought must be the most shattering position for the youngest champion ever to find himself in. First year, unexpectedly leads championship whole year outperforms and beats the ‘driver of the generation’, loses to another team following a complete team cock up by one point, second year fights a championship (and the FIA – Spa) on his own in a lesser car, wins on the final corner of the last lap.

          As the youngest champion, leads team out to 2009 testing following a huge 2009 regulation shift far in excess of any previous…

          And find the car multiple seconds off the pace, some fuel corrected 6+ seconds slower than the team who were using cobbled together meccano kit cars you guys had lent engines to in order to keep them in the game. Without Kers, sponsorship, money, people, you name it. Brawn did not have it. You somehow drag the heap to third in the first race and due to an even more impressive commas error than the one that lost you 07, you get penalised and absolutely murdered by the press for doing what your boss told you in a stewards meeting.

          Now that’s a roller coaster and this along with the following up and down years, always racing a world champion team mate, frequently lapping and beating him, always struggling with a team equality policy that seemed to exclude himself, always finding DNF while leading yet keeping the team and himself in the hunt to the final rounds even during a period of complete domination by another team.

          These the reasons why I back him in a pressurised environment because he unusually just gets better and better the harder it is.

          Alonso?… not so much

          Max?…. Nope

          Seb?… yes but dropped the ball

          1. Rodric Ewulf
            2nd July 2021, 18:49

            First year, unexpectedly leads championship whole year outperforms and beats the ‘driver of the generation’, loses to another team following a complete team cock up by one point, second year fights a championship (and the FIA – Spa) on his own in a lesser car, wins on the final corner of the last lap.

            Here there’s more excuses for Lewis’ blunders, as if he hadn’t any responsibility on China 2007 type of incidents as well. That way it’s rather easy to be perfect. When Fernando did spoiled things for himself, like spinning off in Japan the same season, those pundits and fan boys applied double standards, as if Lewis couldn’t have a say over strategy to avoid making his tyres become soap at the pit lane entrance. If that’s the case, then he’s far off from being a complete driver, as the every genius in Formula 1 always were very proactive in race decisions.

            Additionally, it’s a very biased comment (British tabloid sensationalist level) to be so sure that Lewis outperformed Fernando in 2007 when they tied in everything on the standings bar number of second place finishes. If that’s the case, what can be said of Lewis against Jenson Button in 2011, a drubbing? Certainly 270-227 in the standings is way more close to it. And the tiresome appeal to being a rookie really is not that relevant either, Sebastian also begun his carrer strong as a rookie and in his second year, first with a top machine, remained in striking distance for the title in 2009. As such Lewis is not a god on earth like media and noobie fans had lifted him by doing that, even though what he achieved in his first season was really impressive, no doubt about that, but not quite something that could be done only with superpowers or something like that. He entered the season with the right team at the right moment (track performance wise only, as in 2007 McLaren were a deranged mess on HR) for his debut. And still, whilst Fernando obviously was more experienced than Lewis, let’s not pretend he had the experience he has today. You can hardly call a guy who had 5 seasons in Formula 1 that time (and one of those driving at the rear end for Minardi) a very seasoned driver, actually it’s only brought up to the discussion because of the need to fetishise on Lewis performance, and Fernando’s two WDCs were conquered with him being rather green actually. At least in comparision with the years that would follow, when he gradually became even less error prone while mantaining his speed. Unless you show me strong arguments otherwise, it’s clear that Fernando has an edge on Lewis in consistency and race planning, even if we concede that Lewis may be the fastest driver of his generation.

          2. Rodric Ewulf
            2nd July 2021, 18:57

            First year, unexpectedly leads championship whole year outperforms and beats the ‘driver of the generation’, loses to another team following a complete team cock up by one point, second year fights a championship (and the FIA – Spa) on his own in a lesser car, wins on the final corner of the last lap.

            Here there’s more excuses for Lewis’ blunders, as if he hadn’t any responsibility on China 2007 type of incidents as well. That way it’s rather easy to be perfect. When Fernando did spoiled things for himself, like spinning off in Japan the same season, those pundits and fanatics were ready to applied double standards, as if Lewis couldn’t have a say over strategy to avoid making his tyres turn into soap at the pit lane entrance. If that’s the case, then he’s far off from being a complete driver, as the every genius in Formula 1 always were very proactive in race decisions.

            Additionally, it’s a very biased comment (British tabloid sensationalist level) to be so sure that Lewis outperformed Fernando in 2007 when they tied in everything on the standings bar number of second place finishes. If that’s the case, what can be said of Lewis against Jenson Button in 2011, a drubbing? Certainly 270-227 in the standings is way more close to it. And the tiresome appeal to being a rookie really is not that relevant either, Sebastian also begun his carrer strong as a rookie and in his second year, first with a top machine, remained in striking distance for the title in 2009. As such Lewis is not a god on earth like media and noobie fans had lifted him by doing that, even though what he achieved in his first season was really impressive, no doubt about that, but not quite something that could be done only with superpowers or something like that. He entered the season with the right team at the right moment (track performance wise only, as in 2007 McLaren were a deranged mess on HR) for his debut. And still, whilst Fernando obviously was more experienced than Lewis, let’s not pretend he had the experience he has today. You can hardly call a guy who had 5 seasons in Formula 1 that time (and one of those driving at the rear end for Minardi) a very seasoned driver, actually it’s only brought up to the discussion because of the need to fetishise on Lewis performance, and Fernando’s two WDCs were conquered with him being rather green actually. At least in comparision with the years that would follow, when he gradually became even less error prone while mantaining his speed. Unless you show me strong arguments otherwise, it’s clear that Fernando has an edge on Lewis in consistency and race planning, even if we concede that Lewis may be the fastest driver of his generation.

        2. David What LH had in 2009 was not the same as the massive difference for SV from 2013 to 2014. And he hadn’t come off a 4 year run. As to DR he went into 2014 feeling like he was in the best car he’d ever had, which of course was the opposite of SV’s experience. As I’ve said I’m not excusing SV for all his blunders but I do give him some slack for 2014.

      3. @davewillisporter

        Alonso has the belief that he himself is the best!

        I’m sure he has a solid case for that. I’ve never seen any driver after Schumacher – Hamilton and Verstappen included – mounting a solid championship challenge in an inferior car and driving like Alonso did in 2010 and especially in 2012.

        1. You were not watching then @tifoso1989 but then you would be watching the one team.

          Because in 2010 LH was a broken wheel bearing from winning despite having the world champion as a team mate who was taking points off him and allowed to whatever… even when he had fell out of the running. All in a lesser car than the Ferrari. Alonso had no such worries.

          And 2012? Sorry while I was truly impressed with Fernando, he had the whole team, his team mate and impeccable reliability giving him a huge lead all behind him. Yes there was Grojean but that did Hamilton too. Fernando did not have a Maldarnado or rookies taking away his races let alone the reliability and amazingly the team.

          Then a stupid decision lost it for him. Just one. LH had about 50 to deal with that year. LH had a fast but but broken car and a team solely focussed on getting Button off the back of the grid usually at his expense.
          2012 plaudits I think should be shared and LH and FA get them all.

          1. @drgraham
            I think we can still debate without having to pull rants on each other !

            Hamilton in 2010 did have a championship winning machine. It was not the outright fastest car. The MP4-25 which was the only car equipped with the F-duct since the start of the season was equally fast and sometimes even faster than the RB6 on some tracks.

            The RB6 aka the downforce maniac was the fastest car that season, however it was unreliable and draggier due to the enormous amount of downforce it produced, add to that the Renault V8 wasn’t the most powerful engine, the Mercedes V8 was. On power sensitive and low downforce tracks the MP4-25 did have the edge on the RB6.

            The Ferrari that year (F10) was the fastest car only in Monza, all the other wins of Fernando were down to special circumstances. Hamilton that year lost the championship that year with his own mistakes. He threw no less than 30 points (2 possible 3rd places) in Monza and Singapore alone and finished the season 16 points shy of Vettel.

            In 2012, Hamilton had his best year in F1 after 2007 and was a serious title contender before being let down by the reliability of his car and his team poor operations (pit stops and strategies). However the MP4-27 was the outright fastest car in 2012.

            The Ferraris driven by Alonso were indeed reliable. However they lacked pace and Alonso was trying every trick in the book and even some more to compensate for the lack of pace. He was always there to capitalize on other driver’s bad luck or mistakes. His lightening starts, tyre management, excellent overtaking manoeuvres… Hamilton was good in 2010 and 2012 but we’ve never seen any drive from him in those years that can be compared to Alonso’s drives. For example Malaysia 2012, Valencia 2012, Singapore 2010. Maybe I wasn’t watching back then or have a selective memory ! You’re welcome to counter my claim, off course without trash talking.

          2. Rodric Ewulf
            2nd July 2021, 16:50

            @drgraham
            In 2010 McLaren was faster than Ferrari by a considerable margin, if not for reliability it was a championship winning machine indeed, albeit still behind Red Bull, as that season RB were clearly the fastest but not completely dominant. The same happened in 2012, but many forget that in this case Ferrari was way behind, especially in the beginning it was really a crappy car. As such while Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso achievements arguably are close to a match in 2010, and they both performed more than would be expected, Fernando’s 2012 charge has to be in another level, because the Ferrari car had begun the season as 5th-6th fastest (often he qualified in a lowly Q3 position and Massa usually was knocked out in Q2) and only became a respectable force mid-season, but still generally 3rd or 4th fastest until the end (Lotus-Renault also were in the mix for regular podium finishers, something that had put them close to the lead in the championship given it was a multi-team title fight season).

            Then a stupid decision lost it for him. Just one. LH had about 50 to deal with that year. LH had a fast but but broken car and a team solely focussed on getting Button off the back of the grid usually at his expense.

            It looks like an excuse because Lewis was already team favourite, and also every top driver has to be not only outright fast but consistent and adaptable. While in fact reliability was poor as usual for McLaren and with the MP4-27 it wasn’t any different in 2012, Lewis fell short of consistency that year in comparision to Fernando by some margin, as a driver cannot completely avoid being involved in incidents but can minimize them. The F2012 was a tricky car to drive, probably one of the most difficult cars someone dragged to a title challange in F1 history, so Fernando had to start more to the middle of the pack quite often. It was not a coincidence or pure luck that he was involved in very few incidents. His calculated self probaly made him avoid one or two race ending incidents along the way, and that Grosjean accident was a notable exception but among of the most difficult ones to avoid. Lewis is extremely fast and can make various race strategies work as wonders but he never had a reputation of minimizing incidents, and actually he striked a really low point in 2011 but to this day he is considerably more incident prone than Max, for instance. Yes, the British media would never on earth have thought it would come to that point.

          3. DrG (@drgraham)
            3rd July 2021, 7:34

            Wow two debates!
            First off – apologies I had no such ‘trash intention’
            I will get back to you later but note we are agreeing on most points about Alonso but not the Hamilton commentary which just got better with the

            ‘Lewis being more incident prone than Max’

            Oh come on –

    3. Looks like you’ll be waiting for a long time. None of the comments so far seems to be from an “insecure fan”. Real fans acknowledge that Max and his team are doing an excellent job this season.

      It appears the really insecure ones are the likes of you who can’t see that both drivers are supreme talents that we’re lucky to have in the sport right now and feel the need to continually denigrate Lewis. Relax man.

      1. Rodric Ewulf
        9th July 2021, 19:09

        @drgraham Don’t be stuck in a past time when Max did many unforced mistakes, that is, until early 2018. He took a step forward in minimizing them. Look at this season, count Max’s costly mistakes and it’s plainly undenaiable he made less of those than Lewis. That denialism of Max consistency is rooted in mostly outdated conceptions. Again, he can become more error prone in the future like he had been in the past? No doubt it’s possible. But this is exactly what’s already happening to Lewis now, not Max.

        1. Rodric Ewulf
          9th July 2021, 19:29

          @drgraham Max had in 2017-18 seasons the equivalent of what 2010-11 was to Lewis, two seasons with plenty of mistakes, many of them even unforced, that made both of them develop a better spatial awereness to avoid such blunders (specially two-digit points costly mistakes, not that much the smaller ones). Very few times in this site I try to predict the future, so as things are now there’s a clear trend of Max’s mistakes diminishing and/or becoming less impactful on race results while Lewis’ mistakes have been more noticeable recently than in recent seasons. This is the point that seems really difficult to argue against.

  3. Rodric Ewulf
    1st July 2021, 17:41

    Many things that Alonso says do hurt some people but usually are spot on. In this case he is again accurate, as anyone who does a calculated analysis will conclude Max Verstappen is currently performing better than Lewis Hamilton. Both are very fast but the difference has been a matter of some low costly mistakes (Max) versus some blunders along the way (Lewis).

    1. Dave (@davewillisporter)
      1st July 2021, 18:32

      Agree with the above. We are not seeing a Hamilton that is in harmony with his car like we see with Max. There really is very little in it if you take the car differences out of it. Both are killing their team mates. The gaps they open out to everyone else is ridiculous. One is happier with the car than the other. A point for anyone lauding Alonso’s perception. He believes he is the best driver in F1 history which means he believes he is better than Hamilton who ran him hard as hell as a greenfingered rookie, and better than Max, better than Charles, better than George who by the way he states is the most impressive driver of the new crop not Max.
      All he is saying is at the moment Max is outperforming Lewis and he is correct! If Lewis ever becomes comfortable with the W12 it could turn very quickly. I’ve said for a while now those two are the best of the decade. The gaps prove it.

      1. Rodric Ewulf
        1st July 2021, 19:02

        Does Fernando believes he is better than Senna and Prost? I think he said many times he was the best of his generation, so yes, better than Lewis, Seb and the others. If you show me a statement from him saying he is the best of ALL TIME I’d appeciate because I’ve never seen that.
        As for Max and Lewis, I think other factor that plays out in favour of Fernando’s view is that Max did not begun to perform in a level so high yesterday. He was doing that before feeling so great in the car. His hardships all those years giving the maximum in considerably inferior machine to Mercedes and scraping wins nearly always he could was not overlooked by him. I’m not implying that Lewis never was capable of that, but recently he is going unproved on that aspect. The only basis of comparision we have is Bottas, besides the number of off days or serious mistakes from Hamilton himself. As such Max dramatically stopped to make dumb mistakes from early 2018 onwards, whilst Lewis has been having an inconsistent year in 2021, had generally top in-form seasons from 2019 to 2020 but without facing too much of a challange, and got benefitted from Vettel/Ferrari colapse in 2018 but was solid himself, although making few but pretty noticible blunders along the way. My point is: Max is building and Alonso-esque level of consistency that Lewis rarely had in his career, conceding from the beginning that both are extremely fast, it just feels like Alonso vs. Hamilton rivalry days.
        People were wrong about Fernando’s come back to Formula 1 because experience through the ability of being consistent counts more than they think, and as soon as things fall into place for him at Alpine he had been again able to extract it to the most and achieve the best results possible more often than not.

        1. Given Hamilton’s incredible body of work in F1 where he holds pretty much every possible meaningful record, has more than 10 times as many poles wins and podiums in only twice the number of races than Verstappen, I am amazed you could even begin to write this….

          “Max is building and Alonso-esque level of consistency that Lewis rarely had in his career”

          I appreciate you are a fan and he is a fantastic driver, doing really well in a car that is cream of this years crop but he is no rookie, has run many races in what was usually the second and occasionally the very best car, drives for an outstandingly good team yet if you look at any meaningful metric, Hamilton absolutely has outperformed him. Particularly qualifying and race wins and consistency!

          1. Rodric Ewulf
            2nd July 2021, 17:48

            Incredible how Lewis’ blunders in Imola (would be race ending if not for the safety car) and in Baku (brake magic button dropping him from a possible 1st to 16th) were forgotten by you! It’s simply amusing to see someone identifying others as fans when this person says something like that. The biggest fan is the one most avid to distort reality to fit your views about your idol. You made a solid work here.

            “Max is building and Alonso-esque level of consistency that Lewis rarely had in his career”

            I don’t have a crystal ball so I’m talking about the current situation. Max can eventually revert back to his impatient self of early 2018 and before? Absolutely, yes. But that’s not what we are seeing in 2021 and recent years. He made mistakes, but look how many points he had lost due to them. It doesn’t amount to one big mistake of Lewis. Only Bahrain was a race that Max could realistically have done better results given car performance. There’s no way he would hold Hamilton off in Portimao or Barcelona because Mercedes were the fastest there, just like Lewis would not be expected to hold off Max in Red Bull Ring if he was ahead anyway. In some races the fastest car is simply unstoppable if guided by a driver competent enough. But avoiding race costing mistakes is something that matters more than making the most in qualifying, and even then you forgot Monaco, when Lewis was nowhere performance wise and was pretty much a struggler.

  4. Todd (@braketurnaccelerate)
    1st July 2021, 18:37

    More wins and more points for Max, yea? Alonso with the bold statement.

    1. Rodric Ewulf
      1st July 2021, 19:03

      He has been saying that since 2019, that Max is performing better than Lewis.

    2. Also it’s not simply about wins and points, example baku counts as verstappen plus, without win and 0 points, it matters what you’re doing in a race you don’t finish too.

      Hamilton’s imola mistake, that he paid almost nothing for, matters, and the car one has matters too: a win for hamilton at baku would count far more than one for verstappen, without any issue to any driver, given red bull was faster there.

      1. In your opinion, what was the difference between Hamilton’s Imola mistake and Verstappen’s Paul Ricard mistake?

        1. Basically, both recovered and got a crucial result.

        2. Rodric Ewulf
          2nd July 2021, 18:07

          Who needed an external factor (safety car) to make amends for the mistake? Max’s run off in Paul Ricard could have ended his race? Maybe, just like if he hadn’t regained control of his car during that slide in Imola. But Lewis’ encounter with the wall in the same race certainly would take him out of scoring a big amount of points if not for the safety car being called in, whilst Max by himself fully corrected his mistakes mentioned above.

  5. Announcement of the well-known.

  6. Blocks of text with no punctuation will always win :)

  7. The Gospel according to Saint Fernando Alonso.

  8. Lewis doesn’t have the car to show his skills and put Max in his place. Lewis usually goes through a purple path mid-season, so let’s wait and see.

    1. Rodric Ewulf
      2nd July 2021, 3:50

      Actually he does have it more often than not. Mercedes were the fastest in Imola, Portimao, Barcelona and Paul Ricard. If Lewis could not capitalize in two of those races, the first with a race ending mistake, then it’s on him. Max also made mistakes but they were way less costly.

    2. Lewis winning: it’s not the car, it’s Lewis!
      Lewis losing: it’s the car, not Lewis!

      1. You basically summed up every f1 fan with your comment. It’s the car whenever they lose but the driver when they win. The only true fans I’ve seen so far are Vettel fans who really acknowledge that Seb was bad in great cars when they weren’t to his liking. Other than that, it’s literally always the driver when winning. to validate, such fans usually come up with ‘look at the mediocre second driver in the same car’ argument. According to such fans, just because Bottas is grade-A 2nd driver material, Lewis didnt have the fastest car outright in 2018-2019-2020. For such fans, RBR was almost equal but Merc won just because of Lewis.

  9. F1oSaurus (@)
    2nd July 2021, 8:30

    Verstappen should have won a lot more races and gotten pole everywhere. They’ve had the fastest car since winter testing and the gap got only worse after Honda was allowed to upgrade their engine.

    It’s staggering that with a a slightly better button placement Hamilton would have won Baku and would be in the lead

    1. Rodric Ewulf
      2nd July 2021, 18:29

      Actually Lewis did have the fastest car this season more often than not. Mercedes were the fastest in Imola, Portimao, Barcelona and Paul Ricard. Even the notorious sandbagger Toto Wolff admitted it. In neither of those races Red Bull were able to pull a sizeable gap from the Mercedes behind, while the other way around it happened quite often. If Lewis could not capitalize in two of those races, the first with a race ending mistake, then it’s on him. Max also made mistakes but they were way less costly, like that out-track overtake move on Lewis in Bahrain. Nevertheless, you haven’t seen Max pressing the wrong button or hitting the wall during a qualifying or race just yet this season, that’s the main difference.

  10. Am I the only one to notice that Alonso totally dissed Rosberg ? Yes Max may be performing better than a 9 year older Lewis but Lewis is still performing better than you, Fernando! Now let see what what that steers up :)

    1. Rodric Ewulf
      2nd July 2021, 18:15

      Now that Fernando is getting up to speed and making his experience and racing IQ count even more it’s no longer being the case. Lewis is having an inconsistent season, and his denial of that will only make things worse against a guy like Max, given how he is currently performing.

Comments are closed.