Max Verstappen clinched his fourth consecutive world championship last weekend but rival Carlos Sainz Jnr said the second half of the season showed he is beatable.
The Red Bull driver built up a convincing lead early in the season, taken seven wins from the first 10 rounds. However the team’s rivals put them under more pressure as the season went on and Verstappen has only won one of the dozen rounds since then.Sainz said Verstappen’s championship win proved he had been the best driver of the year. However he said the more competitive second half of the championship showed his rivals can compete at the same level as him.
“As much as I think Max has done an incredible job this year, it just shows in the second half of the season, eight drivers within a tenth [of a second] of each other, we could all beat him week in, week out,” said Sainz.
Drivers find it easier to avoid errors when they do not face close competition from their rivals, said Sainz. “Everyone starts making mistakes when they’re under pressure and everyone starts complaining about their car and everyone starts complaining in the media about their car.
“It’s all about pressure management and not having that margin. Whenever you don’t have a two, three tenths margin on your nearest rival or your team mate, suddenly pressure ramps up and everyone is human.”
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However Verstappen believes his performance last year, when Red Bull dominated the championship and he won 19 out of 22 rounds, is under-appreciated.
“Last year I had a dominant car but I always felt that not everyone appreciated what we achieved as a team, winning [grand prix] 10 in a row,” he said. “Of course our car was dominant, but it wasn’t as dominant, I think, as people thought it was.
“That’s for sure my best season I will always look back at, because even in places where maybe we didn’t have the perfect set-up, we were still capable, because in the race, our car was always quite strong, to win races.”
Driver wins in 2024 so far
| Round | Winning driver | Winning team |
|---|---|---|
| Bahrain Grand Prix | Max Verstappen | Red Bull |
| Saudi Arabian Grand Prix | Max Verstappen | Red Bull |
| Australian Grand Prix | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari |
| Japanese Grand Prix | Max Verstappen | Red Bull |
| Chinese Grand Prix | Max Verstappen | Red Bull |
| Miami Grand Prix | Lando Norris | McLaren |
| Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix | Max Verstappen | Red Bull |
| Monaco Grand Prix | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari |
| Canadian Grand Prix | Max Verstappen | Red Bull |
| Spanish Grand Prix | Max Verstappen | Red Bull |
| Austrian Grand Prix | George Russell | Mercedes |
| British Grand Prix | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes |
| Hungarian Grand Prix | Oscar Piastri | McLaren |
| Belgian Grand Prix | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes |
| Dutch Grand Prix | Lando Norris | McLaren |
| Italian Grand Prix | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari |
| Azerbaijan Grand Prix | Oscar Piastri | McLaren |
| Singapore Grand Prix | Lando Norris | McLaren |
| United States Grand Prix | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari |
| Mexican Grand Prix | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari |
| Brazilian Grand Prix | Max Verstappen | Red Bull |
| Las Vegas Grand Prix | George Russell | Mercedes |
| Qatar Grand Prix | ||
| Abu Dhabi Grand Prix |
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Sainz and Verstappen’s performance as team mates in 2015
Sainz and Verstappen were team mates at Toro Rosso during their first season in F1 nine years ago. Here’s how they compared to each other.
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2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix
- Vowles clarifies Colapinto’s claim he was concussed in Las Vegas crash
- Norris lost title because McLaren weren’t competitive enough early on – Stella
- Ferrari are now in their longest-ever championship drought
- F1 “was trying too hard” in first year at Las Vegas – Sainz
- 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend F1 driver ratings
Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
25th November 2024, 11:37
Haha, no. Any driver dreaming about beating Max to the title needs at least 0.3s/lap in car advantage to fight with him for the championship. It was exactly the same with Marquez in MotoGP between 2014 and 2019, when he was head and shoulders above his competition during that period.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
27th November 2024, 0:20
It surprises me for example that some say red bull was the fastest car in 2021, when mercedes had (if marginally at times) the best race pace on the hard tyres until austria, which was the first time verstappen was actually gaining on hamilton when both were on hard tyres, not to mention the rocketship merc had the last 4 races and the fact bottas managed to get more points than perez in a good season for the latter.
Philip (@philipgb)
25th November 2024, 12:40
Even Perez has managed to beat Verstappen in a straight fight on occasion so obviously any of the decent half of the grid ‘can’ beat Verstappen when they have the car to do so
But what I think this season along with 2021 have shown is that Verstappen is quite capable of taking a championship without the fastest car and quite honestly I wouldn’t be confident of any other driver in a like for like car beating him in a championship. I think there are a few drivers out there who would compare with him like how Rosberg did with Hamilton and push championships to be very close, maybe even edging it with a little luck on their side. I think the only thing lacking for Verstappen is he isn’t a clean racer but unless the stewards see fit to start clamping down on some of the moves he pulls that if anything only makes him more formidable
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
25th November 2024, 13:18
That’s 90% of racing in equal cars.
but unless the stewards see fit to start clamping down on some of the moves he pulls that if anything only makes him more formidable
Davethechicken
25th November 2024, 13:30
Adrian Newry stated at the end of 2021 that the Red Bull was the fastest car that year.
So Hamilton was therefore in the slower car and it still took a Masi intervention to stop Hamilton being champion.
As for this season just because the Red Bull was easily fastest for the first 3rd and no team had consistent dominance since. The red bull even when not fastest was only rarely not quick enough for a podium.
MattDS (@mattds)
25th November 2024, 13:52
So you believe Newey saying “what I designed was the best” and somehow you (and you’re not alone 😉) forget about Toto saying the Mercedes was best.
It took an unfair Bottas intervention for Lewis to even be close to Max in AD.
But for you fans it’s absolutely OK and fair and a true testament to Lewis’s qualities as a driver that his teammate takes out Max.
It wasn’t, see my tally below.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
27th November 2024, 0:22
For once I agree with wolff!
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
27th November 2024, 0:25
And I agree with what you’re saying, I was just thinking in the other article that I don’t see ONE race in 2021 verstappen lost cause of his own fault where red bull had the fastest car, and generally he didn’t throw away points, while hamilton has for example the baku mistake in the end, the imola mistake which cost him a chance to challenge verstappen for the win, the monaco slow weekend; on other hand, verstappen had the baku tyre bad luck, bottas bowling in hungary, hamilton making a mistake (as the stewards said) and taking him out with basically no punishment in silverstone, and also the slow pit stop in monza, which is the only reason hamilton and verstappen came together.
Davethechicken
27th November 2024, 12:28
So you think Newey and indeed Horner in the same interview were just being bigheaded?
Toto stated Lewis was the better driver in 2021.
I guess you only hear what you want to hear. Your analysis is rather skewed. Even your numbers which are factual are incorrect l.
I don’t understand the need to exaggerate what Max has achieved and pretend it is something more impressive than it is.
I support neither driver and am Ferrari fan but the exaggerations are boring and amusing.
MacLeod (@macleod)
25th November 2024, 13:56
Only in the begin when the FIA came with that floor rule but Mercedes came back like a brick and in the end they had the fastest.
Davethechicken
25th November 2024, 14:10
Newey said on balance red bull had built the fastest car overall in the 2021 season.(post Abu Dhabi 2021 interview.)
He designed it, he should know.
ludewig
25th November 2024, 19:21
I think that Red Bull had the faster car for more races, but Mercedes had a much larger car advantage once they took over.
MattDS (@mattds)
26th November 2024, 12:48
Newey thinks his design is better than others? Odd now.
What about Toto saying Max won it without the best car? That one is usually forgotten.
Ben
25th November 2024, 13:07
Fair comments. There’s zero doubt that the RedBull has been the best car overall this season. It hasn’t always been fastest, but Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren have had much bigger swings in performance between races. RedBull on the other hand have only ever been 3rd fastest at worst a few times this season.
MattDS (@mattds)
25th November 2024, 13:31
Come on. If you compare just the Red Bull and the McLaren, McLaren comes out on top.
Let’s do the tally:
– Red Bull dominant: Bahrain, SA, Japan, China
– McLaren dominant: Hungary, Netherlands, Baku, Singapore
4-4 up until now.
Then:
– Red Bull with clear edge over McLaren: Las Vegas
– McLaren with clear edge over Red Bull: Australia (inherently, a non-finishing car due to technical issues is worse than a podium car), Monaco, Austria, Belgium, Italy, USA, Mexico,
1-7 for McLaren.
The other races both teams were very competitive with each other: Miami, Imola, Canada, Spain, UK, Brazil.
I feel I’m being generous here: Lando should probably have won at least Imola (stronger pace at the end due to McLaren’s lower tyre wear, just couldn’t pass) and Spain (fumbled the start, lost time, came back very strong when he could chase down Max).
In summary, Red Bull had a clear edge over McLaren in 5 races (4 of which dominant over the entire pack) and McLaren had the edge over Red Bull in 11 races (4 of which dominant over the entire pack).
Zero doubt you say…
Davethechicken
25th November 2024, 14:04
Marttds I don’t agree with your analysis l.
In Monaco Max clipped a barrier in his Q3 lap so you can’t claim McLaren were faster there as Max made an error.
Austria Max was comfortably in the lead until the pit error again hardly a McLaren dominance.
Belgium Max had a grid penalty but was easily fastest in Qualy bit stuck in DRS,. SP ran in podium place until his race was sacrificed to bump Max up. Red Bull had the fastest package but the grid penalty cost the win that week.
Italy Max made a mistake again in Q3 parabolica but was on for front row start.
Britan Red Bull was fastest in the dry but didn’t do well in the wet burning their inters so was that setup or error?
MattDS (@mattds)
26th November 2024, 8:46
OK. Put McLaren in the competitive bracket. 1-6 for McLaren.
I did not say it was a McLaren dominance. That is why I literally made the distinction between “dominance” and mere “car advantage” of one car over the other. I have no idea why both are being lumped together so often.
But OK, put Austria in the competitive list. 1-5 for McLaren.
A grid penalty due to technical issues (ICE) adds to my argument. Furthermore qualifying pace does not bear a 1 to 1 relation with race pace, so not the biggest argument when it comes to assessing car advantage. Max drove through the pack in 2023. This year he couldn’t. Podium for Piastri, no chance of inroads for Max.
This is not correct. His combined S1 and S2 time from that lap is slower than the entire top 6 in qualifying in front of him.
Furthermore, Max finished a long way off in the race. Italy was clearly a weekend where McLaren were second at worst and Red Bull were no better than fourth.
Wait, how was Red Bull faster in the dry? Lando screwed up in lap 1, stayed on Max’s gearbox, overtook Max and only because he was on the wrong tyres could Max come back.
Either way I put UK in the competitive/on balance bracket, what given the above is more than reasonable.
Davethechicken
26th November 2024, 9:41
Perhaps if you watch Monza Qualy again Max was indeed on for front row until he carried too much speed into parabolica and oversteered in Q3. The lap he made this mistake on wasn’t his fastest lap. Of course Ferrari won that race not McLaren.
In Britain, Red Bull had easily the fastest car in the dry conditions but as I said Max pushed too hard on his inters and lost a lot of time to Mercs early on when the tyre gave up. By the end of the race when it dried, he was almost a second a lap quicker.
The fact in Spa Max got stuck in a DRS chain doesn’t mean he had a slower car, as you imply. Red Bull chose to take the grid penalty there, that was their choice. Perez ran comfortably ahead of Lando until he was sacrificed by his own team!
Monaco the drivers complained the leader was at times managing his pace to a staggering 4sec a lap, such is the importance of a mistake in qualifying.
Mercedes won that day in Spa, as they did in Silverstone but not because their car was the class of the field, far from it. They snatched those wins from RBR.
You are making the fairly massive assumption that Max maximises his cars potential which he quite obviously does not, whilst simultaneously assuming everyone else underperforms. You gave Baku as an example where McLaren were quicker than Red Bull on the basis of Max being poor by ignoring the fact the habitually underperforming Perez was much quicker than him.
MattDS (@mattds)
26th November 2024, 10:39
I don’t need to. I have the sector times right in front of me. You want me to list them?
Combined fastest S1 and S2 for Max in Q3: 26.391 S1, 26.798 in S2 for a combined 53.189.
Here are the combined S1/S2 times for the others:
Norris 53.071
Piastri 53.050
Russel 53.140
Hamilton 53.100
Leclerc 53.105
Sainz 53.046
Feel free to point out which info or times I have missed. And state those exact timings please.
Again, no. Lando stayed on Max’s gearbox which is the clearest proof Red Bull wasn’t faster. Lando then passed Max. Max was then quicker because Lando was on the wrong tyre.
I don’t care what Mercedes was doing here: the McLaren was the faster car over the Red Bull, but they screwed up.
The fact they had to take a grid penalty reflects negatively on car advantage. A fast car that doesn’t finish or has technical issues preventing it to finish higher than another car is not a car that holds an edge over said other car.
Lando was not the leading McLaren, Piastri was, and Perez didn’t ran comfortably ahead of Norris at all.
Oscar closed a gap to Leclerc and overtook. Max closed a gap to Leclerc and wasn’t able to overtake – further indicating the McLaren was the better car that day.
Of a mistake in qualifying in Monaco – other circuits within this formula do not pose nearly the same difficulties for overtaking.
Anyway, I moved Monaco to the competitive bracket, so it’s out of the window already. jSurely you will not argue the Red Bull was clearly faster in Monaco, so we need not discuss this one further.
I am not doing that at all. The only assumption I make is that the leading driver is the best reflection of car potential and performance. I have no idea why you think I assume the others underperform, except when they obviously do like Norris in Brazil.
Davethechicken
26th November 2024, 13:25
Lol Mattds
max had a had S1 26.389 S2 26.656
Don’t let the facts ruin a good fairytale.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
27th November 2024, 0:41
Generally I agree with mattds, not all those races it’s possible to argue the red bull was competitive with mclaren, so mclaren still holds a small edge overall imo.
I think baku is however a good counterpoint: perez was the fastest red bull driver there, and I wouldn’t call mclaren dominant that particular race, the ferrari was pretty damn competitive, as evidenced by the race-long battle between leclerc and piastri.
Even if the comparison is just meant as “mclaren dominant over red bull”, you still have to consider that with a proper weekend verstappen would’ve still been a bit closer to the front than perez was, and perez himself was in for a podium till the final lap crash.
Ben
25th November 2024, 14:18
Yes, zero doubt @mattds. You say:
Mclaren Dominant –
Hungry – Verstappen set basically the same lap time as Norris. A 1:15.273 vs a 1:15.227 is not dominant! Max was off form this weekend in the race. He was grumpy and making mistakes. I believe this is where Crofty was joking about him playing games all night.
Baku – Perez massively out performed Verstappen this weekend. He looked the favourite to win at the late stages and this was in no way a dominant performance for Mclaren Vs RedBull.
– McLaren with clear edge over Red Bull:
– Australia? You mean Australia where Max was on pole and Norris was 0.4 off the pace?
– Austria – where Max was on pole twice and dominated the sprint? A gap of 0.4 to Norris for the GP pole around Austria is massive.
– Belgium – where Max was on pole by 0.6 and would have dominated if he didn’t have the engine penalty grid drop. I mean even Perez out qualified the McLaren’s here. Lack of overtaking hurt Max more than having a slow car. We saw the same with Mercedes as Hamilton was over 1 second a lap faster than Russell but still couldn’t pass.
– USA – Max was on pole and won the sprint. He was 2nd on the grid for the GP a massive 0.061 off the pace.
– Monaco – You sneak this in as a “clear advantage’ when 100th of a second was the difference between P2 and P6.
Verstappen was P6 on a 1:10.567 and Lando was P4 with a 1:10.542…. yes, a clear advantage there.
Yes, all of those were a ‘clear’ advantage for Mclaren………
The other races both teams were very competitive with each other:
Miami – Max was again on sprint pole and won the sprint easily. He was on pole by 0.3 from Norris who was only P5. It was luck rather than pace which gave Norris the win. They were not closely matched on pace here at all.
Brazil – In the dry yes, in the wet the RedBull was much stronger.
You’ve also missed the whole point of my comment. The Mclaren, Ferrari and Mercedes have had much bigger performance swings throughout the season. Sure they’ve all been fastest fastest multiple times, but they’ve also been 3rd and even 4th fastest way more than Redbull. Hence why I said “overall” the RedBull has been the best car.
MattDS (@mattds)
26th November 2024, 9:46
Qualifying is just one part of a weekend, and in a formula where overtaking is not the biggest issue it’s less important than race pace. McLaren won with 15s over their nearest competitor, which is absolutely a dominant performance. Most media described their performance as dominant, by the way, so it’s not just me – and Max being grumpy does not change that.
OK, that’s fair enough. Baku is demoted to the “advantage” bin.
4-3 for the dominant weekends
1-8 for the advantage weekends
I mean Australia where the McLaren allowed Lando to get a podium and a 15 points gain in the WDC over Max whose car failed on him. Like I said: a car that finishes is better than a car that doesn’t (especially when it is fast enough for podium).
See above re: qualifying pace. But I’ll demote Austria to the competitive list.
4-3 for the dominant weekends
1-7 for the advantage weekends
Repeat of my reply to Dave:
A grid penalty due to technical issues (ICE) adds to my argument. Furthermore qualifying pace does not bear a 1 to 1 relation with race pace, so not the biggest argument when it comes to assessing car advantage. Max drove through the pack in 2023. This year he couldn’t. Podium for Piastri, no chance of inroads for Max.
See above re:qualifying pace. Lando had a bad lap 1, and in the latter stages of the race closed a big gap on Max and passed him. The McLaren clearly had better race pace, partly thanks to it’s very good tyre wear characteristics that allowed it to be strong in the second half of races during a good part of the year.
I’m not sneaking anything in. I’m conducting a reasoned debate, I’m open for counter arguments, and I don’t possess all wisdom so I can miss things.
Why compare with Lando? Piastri was a good tenth further ahead. You used Perez in Baku to point at the car performance, but not here?
But as said to Dave, I’ll be happy to put Monaco in the competitive list.
Which makes it:
4-3 for the dominant weekends
1-6 for the advantage weekends
You’re forgetting that Piastri was the leading McLaren. He was able to keep the gap around 3 seconds, and we know that McLaren post-updates were very good on their tyres meaning Piastri might have mounted a late-race attack of his own.
No, Max was much stronger. Norris was very erratic and insecure, Piastri had to play second fiddle. This was not a performance indicative of what the McLaren could do.
I do not believe I did.
Which is why I’m doing the tally. The 5 races where Red Bull had a clear edge:
– Bahrain: RBR best, Mclaren fourth
– SA: RBR best, McLaren third
– Japan: RBR best, McLaren third
– China: RBR best, McLaren second
– Las Vegas: RBR third best, McLaren fourth
In the races where McLaren was better:
Australia: Mclaren second, RBR worst as it did not allow Max to get points (and din’t take points off Lando with the other car)
Hungary: Mclaren best, RBR third
Belgium: Mclaren second, RBR third/fourth
Netherlands: Mclaren best, RBR second
Italy: Mclaren best/second (I’ll put them second to prevent discussions), RBR fourth
Baku: Mclaren best, RBR third
Singapore: Mclaren best, RBR second
USA: Mclaren second, RBR third
Mexico: Mclaren best, RBR fourth
The end results.
Dominant weekends: Red Bull 4, McLaren 3
Advantage weekends over each other: Red Bull 1, Mclaren 6
And the placing tallies (competitive weekends not included as by definition they don’t matter in the debate)
Amount each team was best: Red Bull 4, McLaren 4
Amount each team was second: Red Bull 2, McLaren 6
Amount each team was third: Red Bull 5, McLaren 2
Amount each team was fourth: Red Bull 2, McLaren 2
Amount worst: Red Bull 1, McLaren 0
So of the weekends where there was a discernable difference in performance, the difference is McLaren was far more often the second best team and Red Bull was clearly more often the third team, whereas both were fourth best team around twice, and the Red Bull with its technical DNF in Austria, from a driver and WDC point of view, was the worst car for a contender to have.
MattDS (@mattds)
26th November 2024, 11:04
Apologies, I listed “McLaren best” in Mexico, should have been McLaren second. I did count them as second in the final placing tallies.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
25th November 2024, 13:17
Verstappen says that he would love to have a competitive teammate but as we’ve seen with Albon, Gasly, and Perez, all his teammates are unable to drive a F1 car once they join. Looking back, Sainz was uncharacteristically unlucky too.
Nadal retired this week and I think there’s a great comparison between these champions – I think we can all say that Verstappen is the exact opposite of Nadal.
Also since Gladiator II is coming out this week, Verstappen is very much like Commodus from the original movie played by Joaquin Phoenix exhibiting all the same vile virtues.
BamBoomBots
25th November 2024, 13:53
Even in the unlikely event Verstappen goes bankrupt, it must be comforting for him to know that he will always have considerable real estate available in your mind.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
25th November 2024, 14:19
Sure he does, just like Commodus did in the movie Gladiator. Imagine the movie without him.
Robbie1
25th November 2024, 18:24
@freelittlebirds
But the thing is, you’re Commodus.
Because everyone who knows Max keeps telling us what a nice, humble and down to earth person he is.
Like everyone.
And on top of that he’s also one of, if not the, greatest F1 drivers in history.
And regardless of what you say, you know it’s true.
And that stings.
Which I find very funny.
And most pe
kuvemar
26th November 2024, 8:03
The latter part of the season has shown just how ordinary Max can be when not in a dominating car. So far, everything points to him being an exact replica of Vettel. Put him in a team with Leclerc and see how quickly Max crumbles.
MattDS (@mattds)
26th November 2024, 9:53
I have been a big fan of Seb, and am now of Max. I don’t feel this is a fair comment. The latter part of the season, Max didn’t just have “not a dominating car”. He was not in the best car, not even a car that you can call “joint best”. Leaving Spain, he had 69 points advantage.
Currently, he sits at 63 points. This is far from “ordinary”.
In 2021 Max showed he made less points-costing errors than Lewis in a direct battle.
In 2022, when the Ferrari was still highly competitive, he showed he made less errors than Charles in a direct battle. It was Charles crumbling, making some high profile errors.
Furthermore, I’ll point to this article on this very site which you should probably give a proper read: https://www.racefans.net/2024/11/14/norriss-12-errors-which-cost-him-far-more-than-his-62-point-deficit-to-verstappen/
Edvaldo
27th November 2024, 19:03
Ferrari cost many more points that season than Leclerc. Be it with worse reliability, (Spain, Baku) be it with blunders like Monaco, Silverstone, and Hungaroring that cost Leclerc at least 4 wins.
And to be fair, Ferrari was faster in just some 4 or 5 races before Spa, when the directive destroyed them, even the race he crashed while leading, Max was pushing him hard before that.
Red Bull was generally faster in races and Max pushing and overtaking Leclerc with a much higher speed DRS pass was quite the common sight that year.
notagrumpyfan
25th November 2024, 13:19
As stated above, Verstappen is beatable. But the reason he won this season is because he didn’t make as many mistakes as all the other drivers.
Even in equal cars he would probably be WDC. Somebody claimed yesterday that he won it in the first six races in superior car, but when checking the results it seems he also scored the most points in races 7-22.
MattDS (@mattds)
25th November 2024, 13:35
A technical DNF in those “first 6 superior” races meant a lot of points lost (and a net gain of 15 points by Lando on Max). In Miami it wasn’t superior anymore: Piastri stayed within close distance and the McLaren was yet to exert its better tyre wear characteristics come end of race. And given Lando won Miami (due to the SC, yes) meant that it was another race where Max couldn’t extend his lead.
So when he supposedly won it in the “first 6 superior” races, that is really reduced to 4 out of the first 6 races. After which he had a lead of 53 points on Lando. His current advantage is 63 points, which is 10 points more.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
27th November 2024, 1:00
I think even without the SC mistake norris had good chances to win miami because of his superior race pace in the final stint.
Edvaldo
25th November 2024, 18:52
From races 7-22 Red Bull was 2nd fastest most of the time anyway.
Ferrari had a mid-season slump and Mercedes had a good moment before summer break that only came back now, 3 races to the end of the season.
So the fair comparison is against the McLaren drivers, and he did better than them, hands down.
F1 Fan
26th November 2024, 18:18
Yeah list them races anyways.
Edvaldo
26th November 2024, 18:42
Ferrari was 4th fastest for some good 5 or 6 races beginning in Canada, round 9.
They were faster than Mercedes in Zandvoort and were back to contention in Monza, round 16.
Mercedes on the other hand, were truly competitive in just a handful of faces and actually won more races than they deserved, as Russell had no business winning in Austria, it fell on his lap.
Edvaldo
25th November 2024, 18:12
The other teams had to catch up, and now it seems they did. Now, they have to operate as tight as Red Bull’s pit crew, management, and strategists, none of them is at that point yet, they still make some silly mistakes every now and then.
Regarding drivers, they’re all professionals, they all need a good car. As soon as they had it, Max’s domination was over.
This season, which looked like 2023 part 2 at first, turned out to be a pretty good surprise. Let’s hope things stay this way for now.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
27th November 2024, 1:02
Indeed, look how many wins for each team, a surprisingly good season.
Pjotr (@pietkoster)
25th November 2024, 18:32
Well in Brazil ’24 the two Alpines finished better than Mercedes and Ferrari (and the rest) exept for one Red Bull, but what does that tell us?
Davethechicken
26th November 2024, 9:46
Maybe it tells us Gasly and Ocon are the best drivers on the grid?
peter
27th November 2024, 12:29
Gasly is a formerly driver being destroyed by Max. While at Force India Ocon was on par with the current driver being destroyed by Max. Does that maybe tell you something?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
27th November 2024, 1:03
That the red flag rule is stupid!
Alex
26th November 2024, 2:30
I hope Carlos is wrong on his predictions because I was in Brazil’s race this year and I have witnessed what more equal machinery did to the “Max vs. others” dispute. A better season could be achieved by giving faster cars to others and, meanwhile, Max and Lewis would be struggling to make their cars to perform.
GechiChan (@gechichan)
26th November 2024, 8:44
It’s not a question of being unbeatable, ofcourse Max can be beaten in a non-dominant car, although Brazil showed he is still a boss-level fight in equal machinery.
The better question is: can any of the other title challengers could have won the WDC in this year’s RBR car? I really doubt it, none of them looked sure-footed enough to extract everything from it and not make any mistakes (except maybe Mexico).
Edvaldo
26th November 2024, 13:00
“Equal machinery” is a good one lol.
Max and Norris were in a league of their own in Brazil. It’s just that he started the race out of place due to the red flag, if not for that he probably would’ve been pole and done what Norris should, but again, didn’t: keep the lead and pull away for a very easy win.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
27th November 2024, 1:08
If there’s anyone else who could’ve won the title in the red bull, it’s probably leclerc: norris no chance, given the amount of mistakes he made with a bit better car; assuming leclerc would’ve been able to do it, it’d have been marginal, not a dominant win like verstappen did.
peter
27th November 2024, 12:25
Did Sainz read Animal Farm? Anyhow he is right, to beat Max he will need a car that is more equal than Max’.