Verstappen could have missed the last 10 races and still won the title

73 comments on “Verstappen could have missed the last 10 races and still won the title”

1. 

   MichaelN
   27th November 2023, 17:32

   Thanks for doing the numbers on that scenario. That would have been a finale that could sustain F1 discussion for months or even years.

   But in the real world, it’s been an embarrassing year for everyone not named Max Verstappen. At least in 2015 the other teams could blame the tokens. Today, the eight other teams spent over a billion on cars that were nowhere near competitive. It’s a big failure on the part of the people involved.
   1. 

      Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
      27th November 2023, 20:34

      That would have been a finale that could sustain F1 discussion for months or even years.

      Indeed, the stewards would surely have been referred to in somewhat fruitier terms than “a joke”…
      1. 

         SteveR (@stever)
         28th November 2023, 6:19

         Oh come on, give it a break. RBR and Max have done an amazing job; it’s up to the other teams to catch up. Verstappen is not winning because officials are colluding, he’s winning because he is driving better and RBR have built a better car. Look at the difference between Peresz and Verstappen; that’s not simply a chassis difference.
         1. 

            Tommy C (@tommy-c)
            28th November 2023, 8:19

            I think Keith was merely pointing out how much flak the stewards would cop if the championship was decided by a 5 second penalty for the minor contact between Perez and Norris. There’s no criticism of Max and his achievements here.
            1. 

               Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
               28th November 2023, 8:47

               @tommy-c That’s exactly what I meant.
2. 

   sam
   27th November 2023, 17:49

   No,
   It was boring when the red team was winning everything, boring when the silver team won everything and is boring now. No difference except the uniforms.
   1. 

      melanos
      28th November 2023, 0:17

      Not quite, 2016 was a fun season, yes the silver team won everything but the intra-team competition was only comparable to the Proffeseur/BigBully and The Magic/BigCh34t years
      1. 

         Axel
         28th November 2023, 14:23

         Agree, I really liked the 2016 season. There were a lot of overtakes, a reasonably tight field apart from Mercedes and even though they won 19 out of 21 races, there were multiple races were other teams really challenged for the win. With Ferrari in Melbourne and Montreal and Red Bull in Monaco and Singapore. Unlike 2014 and 2015 a Mercedes 1-2 was not a guarantee and there were some memorable races throughout the season.
3. 

   Matt (@hollidog)
   27th November 2023, 17:55

   Wild that in the last scenario Perez would have only won one more race. This is not Red Bull dominance, this is Verstappen dominance. In 2014/15 Mercedes had 23 1-2s. 22/23 RB had 9.
   1. 

      Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      27th November 2023, 20:56

      @hollidog it’s also quite likely that Checo may have been driving Verstappen’s car or the same model if Max decided to stay on the beach…
      1. 

         G
         27th November 2023, 22:53

         That’s rubbish, both drivers have said they have the same car as have a few ex drivers and pundits who know what they are talking about.
         No team would deliberately compromise one of their drivers.
         1. 

            Jonathan Parkin
            28th November 2023, 5:46

            I don’t think it’s a case of deliberately compromising their Number 2 driver, but let’s be honest. Do we really think Red Bull want Sergio to be WC
            1. 

               MichaelN
               28th November 2023, 11:02

               Do we really think Red Bull want Sergio to be WC

               They wouldn’t not want it. Having two champions is great, and having a South American champion (in Red Bull’s view of the world anyway) would also be great.

               But Pérez is just nowhere near good enough to challenge Verstappen over a full season. Even Bottas had weekends where he could genuinely outpace Hamilton, and even year on year at the same venues.
      2. 

         mooa42
         28th November 2023, 2:10

         There is every chance Checo could have been doing even worse without Max’s input from practice.
4. 

   Nick T.
   27th November 2023, 18:32

   Checo could have another 10 races without Max in the field and he still couldn’t catch Max. Worst #2 performance ever and still got #2 in WDC. We never saw Bottas or Rosberg fail to reach Q3 50% of the time.
   1. 

      Dane
      27th November 2023, 20:11

      It’s not like Checo is known to be a terrible driver. He won in a Racing Point car after all and got all those podiums in midfield cars. I really think Max was just in another league this year.
      1. 

         Erzen (@xenn1)
         27th November 2023, 21:09

         I feel like the 2020 Racing Point was capable of more than what Perez and Stroll achieved with it. Neither one of them is a terrible driver per se, but honestly looking at their form since then it looks like they struggle to even get 90% out of their machinery for most of the time. 2020 might’ve been where Perez’s form in F1 peaked and it’s dipped very strongly since then.

         For a driver as experienced and on his 3rd year in the team i find it atrocious that with the RB19 in his hands 2nd place in the championship for Perez looked to be at risk at one point.
         1. 

            Michael (@freelittlebirds)
            27th November 2023, 21:16

            @xenn1 if Perez were a bad driver he would not be driving a Red Bull.
            1. 

               Crawliin-from-the-wreckage (@davedai)
               27th November 2023, 23:32

               Was scrolling not reporting. Sigh sorry
         2. 

            Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
            27th November 2023, 22:43

            @xenn1 I agree, the 2020 Racing Point is an underrated car. I think if they had an Alonso/Hamilton/Verstappen in the car it would have been capable of a few race wins, many podiums, and at least solid points in almost every race. Stroll also should have won Monza after being the biggest beneficiary of the red flag, but he fluffed the restart.
            1. 

               Nick T.
               28th November 2023, 5:30

               Kimi’s Lotus was also a WDC worthy car in the hands of some like Alonso and Max. We’ve seen many examples of this.

               I don’t think Checo is a terrible driver. It’s just his roof isn’t that high. He’s always been a terrible qualifier and solid at moving through the field.
         3. 

            MurasamaRA300 (@murasamara300)
            28th November 2023, 11:18

            Perez may not be on Verstappen’s level but who would have done a better job?
            Perez got 2nd in the championship, RB got the constructors.

            Who would do a better job in Red Bull no 2?
            I don’t see anyone.
   2. 

      Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      27th November 2023, 21:10

      Yeah, it’s all baloney. He’s not overdriving the car. Checo’s getting 100% out of the car he’s been given.

      At the beginning of the season, they both had similar cars as Helmut thought that Max would smoke Checo but that clearly backfired and Jos had a stroke seeing Checo win twice. So the next time they went out Checo’s car was an upgraded Toro Rosso.

      Max wouldn’t win a single race in Checo’s car.

      All the drivers that have left Red Bull are still in F1 and doing well – if they were 0.5 seconds slower and incapable of getting a podium with those cars, they’d be out of the sport the next day…
      1. 

         G
         27th November 2023, 22:57

         More rubbish. You lost all credibility when you persistently tried to defend the Mercedes drivers on occasions, even after they admitted fault. It sounds like you have sour grapes because Lewis wasn’t consistent enough to produce the numbers Max has with an equally, if not more dominant Mercedes in the past.
      2. 

         melanos
         28th November 2023, 0:20

         Max wouldn’t win a single race in Checo’s car

         Can you say that to me with a straight face?
      3. 

         AlanD
         28th November 2023, 2:01

         Michael: “At the beginning of the season,”

         Checo won the second race, Saudi, having started on pole, with Max not doing too well off the grid. The fourth race, Azerbaijan, Max was well placed until the SC came out for de Vryies, and that was where he lost the lead. I think the improvement of MV over SP since then is primarily about MV learning better how to get the most out of the car, as well as improving his starts. Maybe MV’s driving style was better suited to the characteristics of the car than SP’s, but I don’t think you can seriously think they’d give Checo a substandard car. What do you think Red Bull possibly have to gain by slowing one car down or by giving him bad pit stops or whatever? Don’t you think Red Bull would much rather have had a one two finish every race?
         1. 

            Michael (@freelittlebirds)
            28th November 2023, 3:12

            What do you think Red Bull possibly have to gain by slowing one car down or by giving him bad pit stops or whatever?

            That argument has to been tossed around forever with Red Bull. I suppose it’s true but if it were then Gasly, Albon, and Perez (and to some extent Sainz who didn’t even make the grade to join Red Bull) wouldn’t be in F1.

            Gasly is still in F1 and doing pretty well at Alpine.
            Albon is flourishing at Williams.
            Perez is still at Red Bull.
            And Sainz is driving for Ferrari.

            I’m sure these teams are not in the business of hiring dog-slow drivers who can’t even podium with the most stable and quickest F1 car ever made…

            Hey, you look slow enough, do you want to join Leclerc? How about you? Do you want to replace Russell at Williams? You look slow enough to make it happen.

            Horner nodding with his recommendation “oh, he’s slow enough! he’s your driver! trust me, we gave him the best car and he could do nothing with it”.

            Clearly the paddock assumes that Red Bull is giving their 2nd driver at Red Bull a car that’s much slower otherwise they’d be driving Ubers now instead of F1 cars… 
            1. 

               AlanD
               28th November 2023, 3:57

               Michael, the reason that argument has been tossed around forever is becausec it is never refuted with a sensible answer. I repeat, what could Red Bull possibly hope to gain by giving one driver a sub-standard car? Red Bull are in the sport to win, and also to promote their product. Checo has a big following in central and south Amercia, and there would be huge benefits to Red Bull in getting their name more prominently onto the sports pages in those countries. Why would they want to jeapordise that? And why would they want to give up points money by sabotaging one of their own drivers?

               But let’s say you are right in your belief, and Red Bull really have deliberately given Perez a weaker car to make Max look better. If that is the case, how do they keep that secret? Tell me how. Each and every one of dozens and dozens of engineers would all have to be part of this conspiracy, so that they didn’t inadvertently discover why Checo was slower and blurt out suggestions to equalise the two cars. It is inconceivable that so many people could all keep that secret for years and years. Look at all the other times people made this claim, like all the people who insisted Brawn F1 were making sure Button beat Barrichello, or that Merc were giving Bottas bad calls to keep him behind Hamilton. How have all those people kept it secret for all these years, with none of them tempted to write their memoirs, with no disgruntled employee selling the story to the tabloids?

               Can be provide any shred of evidence, actual evidence, that any team has ever chosen to secretly sabotage one of its drivers?
            2. 

               MichaelN
               28th November 2023, 11:09

               Pérez doesn’t have a slower car. But as has happened so often before, when engineers push the car to its limits, it becomes theoretically faster but also become more difficult to drive at the limit. People like Verstappen can handle that better than people like Pérez can. Pérez isn’t “slow” as such, he’s just slower than Verstappen. And unfortunately for us viewers, significantly so.

               In the F1 Beyond the Grid podcast with Briatore, there’s a great anecdote from back when Briatore was at Benetton; there was moaning that Schumacher got the better car, so he ordered the cars to be switched, angering Schumacher’s manager – but then Schumacher still did far better. Briatore declared the experiment over, and there was no more complaining after that.
            3. 

               G
               28th November 2023, 12:24

               Exactly. Why on earth would they develop the car to understeer to suit their slower driver so he is more comfortable handling it? It’s a no brainer.
               Kimi liked a pointy car and drove him best in a Newey McLaren. Max is doing the same.
            4. 

               Michael (@freelittlebirds)
               28th November 2023, 15:02

               Alan,

               And why would they want to give up points money by sabotaging one of their own drivers?

               If I recall correctly, Red Bull has never been in a situation where the 2nd drivers’ points mattered in winning the WDC. Their dominance with the 1 car starting from P1 or front row and the other car starting at the rear of the grid has proven successful in winning.

               If that is the case, how do they keep that secret?

               Are you suggesting that Red Bull has no secrets at all? Just as they are massively better at pit stops, why it be a surprise to you or anyone else that they are great at keeping secrets? I can assure you all F1 teams have secrets that are kept in a very tight circle and that’s a lesson all teams learnt after Spygate. In fact, when Red Bull was accused of overspending, his first reaction was to question how they knew about it because clearly the information was shared with very few people and someone blew the whistle.

               The trick to keeping secrets is to limit the number of people who know about them. If there’s one team on the grid I wouldn’t put that past them it’s Red Bull.

               Can be provide any shred of evidence, actual evidence, that any team has ever chosen to secretly sabotage one of its drivers?

               As I pointed out, the drivers are still in F1. No one would be interested in a 0.5 second slower driver who can’t score a podium with the fastest F1 car ever made. In fact, Horner and Marko have tried to hold onto those drivers which is uncharacteristic of him as we saw with Buemi and Algersuari where they let go of 2 drivers. These are the 2 most unforgiving team principals of all time and they have zero tolerance for not performing. And yet, Horner by his standards seems almost delighted with Perez’s performances. Why?

               Clearly, they know something more than we do. Albon, Gasly, Perez, and Sainz should have been out of F1 after their miserable stints at Toro Rosso and Red Bull.

               Which means that the entire paddock don’t believe that these drivers are that slow, otherwise all these guys would have been kicked out of F1 unceremoniously like Vandoorne.
            5. 

               AlanD
               28th November 2023, 22:48

               Michael: “The trick to keeping secrets is to limit the number of people who know about them”

               And how many people do you think that is? Obviously it has to be Horner, Newey, Mateschitz, and all the other top level and director level staff. Then you’d have to involve all the people involved in building and setting up the cars, to make sure they don’t question why MV and SP have slightly different settings or engine mappings or ride heights. Let’s not forget all the people who sit at terminals all race long, analysing different components, and the ones who disassemble parts after the race checking for wear and tear, to make sure they all know that they mustn’t highlight any differences between the two cars that might account for performance differences, and make NB look irdinary. And of course when they give rookies the test session in FP1, they’ve got to remember to downgrade MVs car before the rookie gets in it, so that they don’t look suddenly like superman,….

               But hey, if they are really that good at keeping secrets, that means there must be no evidence at all for your conspiracy theory. Your own interpretation of what other drivers do in other cars is not evidence of anything except a fertile imagination.
      4. 

         Tommy C (@tommy-c)
         28th November 2023, 12:20

         If anyone is curious as to what cognitive dissonance looks like, here’s a great example! After this season, Max should be in everyone’s top 5 greatest drivers ever. I’d still put Clark and Fangio as 1-2 but after that I’m not sure between Senna, Schumacher and Verstappen.
         1. 

            Michael (@freelittlebirds)
            28th November 2023, 15:08

            @tommy-c you mean the same guy that drives at ninety degress off-track if he’s under pressure or pushes drivers out for no reason at all (Gasly) without an investigation or overtakes in the pit exit (without a penalty) or comes on the inside of Russell much worse than Hamilton did in 2021 at Silverstone and Russell gets a penalty instead?

            I guess you are right in that you have proven what cognitive dissonance looks like and amusingly are completely unaware of it too…
            1. 

               ben
               30th November 2023, 2:54

               lol, you’re on another planet mate.

               Hamilton will never win again.

               We good?
5. 

   Ω (@omega)
   27th November 2023, 18:36

   I really don’t like these ‘if Max had … he would still be champion’ stats, at least you took the effort te recalculate the points (which gets forgotten most of the time), but its always just guess work, to say what would have happened.

   Same with the even worse ‘Red Bull would still be champion without Perez’ “stat”.

   Perhaps a bit of an over reaction on my part, but these sort of sensationalist “headlines” always irk me (even if they might well be true).
6. 

   DaveW (@dmw)
   27th November 2023, 19:02

   That headline was a gut punch for us who tuned in dutifully to those last 10 races. But it’s actually hilarious to consider Pérez losing the title due to a penalty while Verstappen spent his 10th race liming on the beach.
   1. 

      Esploratore (@esploratore1)
      27th November 2023, 19:15

      Ahah, indeed, I was thinking the same: verstappen decides to go on holiday with 10 races to go “you’ll never catch me!”, perez gives his all to try and catch up with him, last race “wins” but gets a questionable 5 sec penalty that costs him the title!

      Definitely an ending that could generate arguments like 2021.
      1. 

         @denn (@denn)
         28th November 2023, 0:08

         loving this, it’s like some alt-universe fanfic

         hells, i’d read it
7. 

   Four Four Seven (@fourfourseven)
   27th November 2023, 19:42

   Boring
8. 

   MadMax (@madmax)
   27th November 2023, 20:23

   Stats prove we had the 2 worst seasons ever, with the most dominant car ever.
   1. 

      melanos
      28th November 2023, 0:34

      Your narrative is impervious to facts

      Facts like: Charles Leclerc had three poles in the last 5 races. The second-best team has been changing along the season (AM, Merc, Macca, Fezza) which saved Checo’s 2nd position. A more consistent challenger would have been second easily. But the difference between the RBR and the second team was often razor-thin, as with the Fezzas in the late races.

      Have you ever seen a truly dominant car? well the W05 was the most dominant car of the last 50+ years (arguably the Tipo 500 and the Sharknose, both Fezzas, were even more dominant, but that was a lifetime ago). The RB is very far from that league and that’s a fact. Now say what you want.

      Sorry if your Diva is a senescent tortoise but you cannot blame the car.
      1. 

         AlanD
         28th November 2023, 2:52

         Melanos: “Have you ever seen a truly dominant car? well the W05 was the most dominant car of the last 50+ years”

         When Schuey was at Ferrari, they had a car one year which was so dominant that they continued using it for half a dozen races the following season before they bothered to bring along the updated car.

         The 88 season with Senna and Prost was, I think, even more dominant than today’s Red Bull, especially given that cars were not as reliable back then and there were more cars entering the GPs. Senna had a gearbox failure in the first race of 88, but in the second, San Marino, Senna and Prost were one and two in qualifiying, and everyone else was between three and seven seconds off Senna’s pace, and in the race, they lapped everyone else at least once. By the last race of the season, Australia, the other cars were only 1.5 to 5 seconds off qualifying pace, and only the cars finishing third and fourth were still on the same lap as the two McLarens. Obviously, there were some closer GPs, notably the British GP where Berger put the Ferrari on pole, but in the race, Prost retired with handling errors, and Senna won by 30 seconds and lapped every up to fifth place.

         The 88 McL was so dominant that you didn’t even think there was a sniff of a race win from someone else, unless there was an engine failure or a crash. At least in 2023 we had some hope sometimes that someone might challenge the Red Bulls, and likewise in the Mercedes years, you still felt it was possible for other teams to challenge them. Not so with the McLaren in 88. Unfortunately, it continued to be almost as dominant in 89 and 90.
         1. 

            Robert (@rob8k)
            28th November 2023, 12:55

            Still so many variables. This discussion of which car was the most dominant is wierd to me. They may have had poor reliability in 80s than today but they also had unlimited testing and spare cars. No budget cap or tokens. The 2023 Red Bull will go down as a great car alongside others.
         2. 

            Michael (@freelittlebirds)
            28th November 2023, 17:28

            The Red Bulls this season were capable of instant overtakes out of corners or in corners against any car so the talk of car dominance is really strange to read here.

            I think the true pace of the Red Bull is capable of lapping all cars except the podium ones. You thought this year was bad – wait until they go fast.
      2. 

         MadMax (@madmax)
         28th November 2023, 7:35

         distorted reality of an anti fan. Razor-thin with 1s left in the car and cruising around the track. Lol
         1. 

            MadLewis
            28th November 2023, 11:27

            Just like the + 1 sec years from ’14-’20. Delusional Mercedes fans seems to forgot those years. I bet your’re missing those times don’t you? Luckely the engines are more equal now.
   2. 

      JK
      28th November 2023, 7:23

      In that case, stats proof that Verstappen is the best driver to ever walk this planet!
9. 

   Michael (@freelittlebirds)
   27th November 2023, 20:54

   That’s wild…
10. 

    Zann (@zann)
    27th November 2023, 21:00

    so who else would have won in that car? Lewis, George, Fernando, Lando, Charles, Carlos, at least. Alex? Pierre?

    anyway, it’s ridiculous they only pay Adrian £9m when they pay Max £50m. And do people buy cans to be like Max Verstappen? I mean as a brand ambassador he’s not really there is he. They should dump him and put Theo Pourchaire in – more drama, see if they can win with a rookie, and some actual charisma :)
    1. 

       Michael (@freelittlebirds)
       27th November 2023, 21:04

       @zann wait, Adrian only makes 9 million? Wow, the guy is the most underpaid person in this sport…
       1. 

          Zann (@zann)
          27th November 2023, 22:20

          he really is isn’t he! If it was £100m you’d think ‘hmmm, omg that’s a lot, but… okay’ :)
11. 

    scss (@scss)
    27th November 2023, 21:21

    At some point, we should mention Jochen Rindt, who won the championship in 1970.
    He competed in the first nine of thirteen races before tragically being killed in practice for Monza.
    Nine races equates to 69%; but belays the remarkable fact that he retired from four (44+%) of those races due to mechanical issues.
    1. 

       melanos
       28th November 2023, 1:09

       This is of course arguable but many (and f1metrics) consider Jochen’s 1970 season as the best ever. Won 100% of counting races (that is, excluding mech-failures). And his car was not always the best, as the brand-new and revolutionary Lotus 72 was collecting mech failures, the team switched to the obsolescent Lotus 49 and with it Jochen won an astonishing victory at Monaco starting from 8P.
       Another brutal statistic: Nobody ever won a race being Jochen’s teammate.
       There have been only a few seasons with 100% counting races won:
       Juan Manuel Fangio won 3/3 counting races in 1950.
       Luigi Fagioli won 1/1 counting race in 1951.
       Alberto Ascari won 6/6 counting races in 1952.
       Jim Clark won 3/3 counting races in 1964.
       Jim Clark won 6/6 counting races in 1965.
       Jim Clark won 1/1 counting race in 1968.
       Jochen Rindt won 5/5 counting races in 1970. Nobody has done it afterwards.

       Well, anyway I would not consider an ideal season one in which you get killed. Just a thought.
12. 

    Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
    27th November 2023, 22:33

    Keke Rosberg became World Champion with 44 points. 575 of them is just greedy.
    1. 

       melanos
       28th November 2023, 1:10

       And just one win, who needs nineteen?
    2. 

       Crawliin-from-the-wreckage (@davedai)
       28th November 2023, 2:13

       In an extraordinarily weird way I keep remey Rosberg K and Mansell in my favourite moments. Not because of their proficiency rather their admission of responsibility for ooops moments and the way they went about trying to retrieve their position.
13. 

    Tristan
    28th November 2023, 1:02

    Yep… Motorsport series’ kind of have an inherent disadvantage over other sports in that there’s no finals… As much as I’d love to see a touge -based finals elimination bracket amongst the top-8 finishers of the regular season. That’s just not F1.
14. 

    melanos
    28th November 2023, 2:06

    I said this before but it belongs here in the F1 stats post

    With the Yas Marina win, Max is now the recordholder of the (arguably silly) points/race entered stat, which belonged to the Craneholder before.
    Anyway, JM Fangio should hold this record, and I believe (but have not checked it) that with any of the various punctuation systems in F1 history (if kept constant) JMF would indeed hold it.
    1. 

       AlanD
       28th November 2023, 3:17

       Even if you tried to convert results over F1 history to the same system, it becomes impossible because in times past when only six places were scoring, drivers in 10th and 11th were not battling for that final point, fastest lap was for kudos, not points, and the unreliabilitiy of F1 cars meant that cars would more often draw a blank, no matter how good the driver was. I think the only objective measures are the percentage of races won, and the number of WCDs won, and Fangio was streets ahead of his peers in both those categories: First F1 race at the age of 39, 51 races, 29 poles, 24 wins, four different teams and five WDCs in a nine year career.
       1. 

          MichaelN
          28th November 2023, 11:16

          four different teams

          This is an underrated stat, even if ‘teams’ were a bit more loosely defined back in Fangio’s day.

          The fact that nobody else even got to three is quite telling. Prost came close in 1990 (although that would have been his 2nd at the time), but that’s about it.

          The list of people who won with two teams reads like an F1 Hall of Fame; Brabham, Hill, Steward, Fittipaldi, Lauda, Piquet, Prost and Schumacher.
          1. 

             MichaelN
             28th November 2023, 11:17

             And Hamilton, of course.
          2. 

             MurasamaRA300 (@murasamara300)
             28th November 2023, 12:18

             Brabham should also have a special mention for winning with his own team.
             1. 

                AlanD
                28th November 2023, 12:47

                Indeed, Jack Brabham winning the WDC at the age of 40 in a car which he both owned and helped design and develop is something we are unlikely ever to see again. There are so many remarkable stories in the history of F1, and it is painful to see people try to rank them into some order of greatness.
          3. 

             Craig
             28th November 2023, 12:54

             You then have instances like Graham Hill and John Surtees who hold records that are near impossible or absolutely impossible to either match or beat, in the former holding the Triple Crown of Motor Racing and the latter being world champion in F1 and Motorbike racing.
15. 

    Aquila_GD
    28th November 2023, 12:18

    Verstappen annihilated the whole competition. Its impressive what he has achieved and he deserves all the accolades.
    I just hope for the sport’s sake we have more competition next year.
16. 

    Craig
    28th November 2023, 12:51

    All it took was breaking the budget cap to get a massive advantage over the field. I’m sure people want to dismiss or play it down but the fact remains they cheated and now have a massive advantage.
17. 

    Tiaki Porangi
    28th November 2023, 14:00

    Has F1 peaked?
18. 

    Tjitse Wolf
    28th November 2023, 15:35

    Would these scores, the ones leaving out Max for 10 rounds, brought it to the percentage-wise closest ever as well?
    Perez would have 99.68% of Max’s points. Closest difference on that scale of points I think, 2016 was 98.70% for example. 1984 would be 99.31% for Prost in comparison to Lauda. It’s the scale of points making each point a smaller difference.

    Just wondering, having calculated the closest ever in percentages between constructors champs and the number 2 of each season sunday. Yes, i’m that type of nerd.
19. 

    Ivan Papalezov (@cordoba16vt)
    29th November 2023, 10:20

    There are many examples of teams hindering performace on purpose on one of their drivers, reasons being mostly not related to each individual performance on track.
    My personal opinion is that Perez driving style does not suit the performance of the car to the extend it suits MV. He has had some funny behaviour with the car ( was the crash in Canada where he had a strange diff and energy deployment problem , he had it in Abu Dabi too btw ), he seems to struggle to keep the car on the edge when needed as MV.
    MV does not need a wingman as of now, he is well in front with the package he has, no undercut/overcut works for his competitors, it is clearly shown RB drivers are on their own in terms of teamwork, and both , together with the team have no issues with this fact. and it has always been – Webber, Albon, Gasly, Kvyat have been on their own.

    In general one F1 car cannot suit two racing drivers, one is at disadvantage, always has been, always will be – tracks do make difference though,as drivers perform differently to various tracks.

    MV is an outstanding driver no doubts about it, the very first time he made me smile was when he did qualify 1st at Monaco – that was Senna/Shumacher/Alonso/Raikkonen/Hakkinen material ( not necessarily in that order) .
    MV is a terrible racer – and sooner or later he will pay his bill to the rest of the field – arogant behaviour, overtakes, and all, what is sad, is that it is not the numbers that make you a great racing driver – it is the passion, the respect to others, the gentleman behaviour, the silent aura that others have achieved by being humble, fast, and respected.
20. 

    Jmdan
    30th November 2023, 3:35

    That’s a crazy statistic, isn’t it? Well, he damn good, and the Red Bull is a damn good car. Well done, congrats to you young man.
    1. 

       Jmdan
       30th November 2023, 3:36

       “he’s” damn it! :-)
21. 

    hobo (@hobo)
    30th November 2023, 17:13

    One thing that these stats show is just how important a strong teammate and the team’s willingness to let the two battle are for a relatively interesting season even when one team is dominating. 2014-2016 would have looked a LOT like 2023 without a strong #2 driver.

    Which is one of a few reasons why I’m not sure we’ll see a strong team with equal drivers again for a while. Maybe if Ferrari or Merc or McLaren make a huge leap–but I’m not expecting that.

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