In the round-up: Max Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase says their latest championship success recalled his first title fight against Lewis Hamilton.
In brief
Title fight like “intense” 2021 season – Lambiase
Lambiase admitted Verstappen’s fight against Lando Norris hadn’t been as tough as his often controversial fight with Hamilton. “I won’t say it was quite as hard as 2021, that was an incredibly intense year, but it came very close,” Lambiase told Viaplay. “It required a lot of dedication, commitment from the whole team and from Max.
“We started the year really well off the back of 2023, but in the middle of the year obviously we had a few problems, as everybody is aware. But the team stuck together really well.
“We really dug deep, analysed the data, tried to understand what the source of the problems were. And I think you’ve seen that there’s been, over the last few races, a bit more of a progression again. Max is back and we’re very happy to seal the championship.”
Bennett gets F2 chance
GB3 championship runner-up John Bennett will make his Formula 2 debut with Van Amersfoort this weekend in Losail. Bennett, who will take over the seat formerly held by Enzo Fittipaldi, will also contest the season finale in Yas Marina.“Earlier this year, I was able to take part in the F3 tests with VAR, and they went very well,” said Bennett. “The team and I feel that I am ready to take the next step in F2 and I can’t wait for the new challenge.”
Verstappen swipes at Brown over fake quote
Following his championship-clinching drive in Las Vegas last weekend, Verstappen took a swipe at McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown, telling him “you said before I could only win it in the fastest car” during an interview on Sky.
Verstappen appeared to be referring to a comment Brown made six months earlier, which was widely misquoted on social media. Speaking after the Miami Grand Prix, at which point Verstappen and his team mate Sergio Perez headed the drivers’ standings, Brown was asked whether he would rather have a star designer or a star driver.
“But I think the way I characterise it is I think there are six [or] seven drivers on the grid that would be world champions in the Red Bull. And as great as Max is, and he’s one of the best ever, I don’t think Max wins the world championship today in any other car other than the Red Bull. But then when you look at the difference and Sergio Perez is an excellent racing driver who shown on his day he can run with Max. But look at the difference there.
“So I think you need both because as Formula 1 gets closer and Max is doing such a special job. But look at what’s going on from P2, P3, P4, P5, one day we’re P2, next day we’re P5 and it’s all moving around. So the cars are so close that that’s when the driver is going to make the difference. So you need both at the end of the day.”
Maserati signs up for more FE
Maserati has committed to continue participating until Formula E until at least 2030. It will produce cars to the series’ new ‘Gen 4’ rules, due for introduction in 2026.
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New Diversity and Inclusion charter agreed by all 10 F1 teams, Formula 1, and the FIA (F1)
'As a sport that prides itself on its unrelenting high performance, Formula 1 recognises the importance that diversity plays in introducing new perspectives and ideas, and in driving innovation, culture, and business results.'
Bunnell heads to MSR as Ganassi finalises engineers for new alliance (Racer)
'Completing the MSR race engineering group is Angela Ashmore, who worked with Marcus Armstrong at CGR last season, and who signed to drive MSR’s number 66 Honda.'
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The Cadillac F1 Team is made up of a strong group of people that have worked tirelessly to build an American works team. I’m very proud of the hard work they have put in and congratulate all involved on this momentous next step. I will be cheering for you!
— Michael Andretti (@michaelandretti) November 25, 2024
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Comment of the day
There’s another IndyCar driver Cadillac should consider instead of Herta, says Doh:
I like Herta but Palou seems like the better drivers for F1. He’s a bit like Max in F1, he’s very consistent and doesn’t make much in mistakes. He’s pretty considered and good with tyres, plus he’s aggressive when he needs to be. Also not overly aggressive like Max at times but IndyCar tracks don’t usually allow for that that anyway.
He’s not the best on ovals and maybe you could say that might not translate well to F1 with all the high-speed stuff but ovals seem top specific to use that as an argument against him. Of course he has nothing to do with Andretti but that’s never been a decider
Doh
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Goldenboy, Lucas, L_A_Munro and Simon Stiel!
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
27th November 2024, 7:52
Please tell me the Inclusivity Charter will mean something this time, and not end up as a PR farce like #WeRaceAsOne (where all of the drivers appeared to be more interested in it than Liberty or the FIA).
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
27th November 2024, 10:42
political correctness is about subordination, it won’t actually affect the top of the food chain, as PC is used in segregating and mediating groups of ‘subordinates’. The drivers have to virtue signal, because if they don’t they risk alienating their sponsors. It’s all dog and pony.
The real horror show is right in front of our eyes, especially if you live in the states, with the for-profit-prison industry which is literally slavery, or severe indentured servitude.
Diversity Inclusion & Equity is about demographic control, and property (chattel). It’s a bad joke. Politics is regressing, not moving forward. The west is in decline, and unfortunately, groups of people who can’t see past their group-reality/identity, will follow the decline off a cliff, when they think they are actually going upwards. Because it’s all relative, just like gravity, time, etc…
This is why if you value your sanity, you cannot abide by group identity, and you must think for yourself. And why this Politically Correct narrative is so toxic, because it is inviting people ‘to the fall’.
Tristan
27th November 2024, 11:12
>Diversity Inclusion & Equity is about demographic control, and property (chattel).
That’s the only part of the rant that is remotely on topic. And I’m scared to even ask how you arrived at that conclusion.
Esteban
27th November 2024, 23:53
By informing himself I would guess. Have a great book on the subject.
Tristan
28th November 2024, 0:09
cheers, I always appreciate new perspectives
S
27th November 2024, 11:01
A PR farce is exactly what inclusivity programs are, because public perception is the entire point of them.
That awful #WeRaceAsOne nonsense was a great example – only a couple of drives were actually interested and the rest were pressured to conform.
Craig
27th November 2024, 8:12
If Lambiase thinks this year and 2021 are even vaguely similar he’ll be in for a massive shock.
Osnola
27th November 2024, 8:33
Please enlighten us.
MichaelN
27th November 2024, 8:57
The closest Norris got was like two races wins worth of points away.
He had a chance, but it was always a slim one. And he basically never outscored Verstappen enough to make real progress. Those 2nd places Verstappen secured when Norris won were excellent.
Doh
27th November 2024, 11:28
Fair point. It would be close if the season started in Austria. It was back and forth from then onwards, which is probably what he meant by “close”. Of oourse with the very large buffer of about 2-3 race wins. Which isn’t very close lol
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
27th November 2024, 12:10
The thing is, you can’t know in advance whether a real championship challenge will emerge or how close it will be in the end. McLaren were looking strong in terms of performance with at least 16 or so races remaining in the championship, while Redbull were starting to struggle. Norris/McLaren had more than enough time to erase that gap, but they missed too many opportunities, while Max and Redbull were much better at both grabbing those opportunities when they arose, and limiting the damage when they were less competitive.
You can never know when your opponents might go on a winning streak, and how important each result and every point will be at the end of the season. So, the intensity has to be there throughout the year, even if in the end Norris never got close close to his target and the drivers’ title was wrapped up with 2 races to spare.
Craig
27th November 2024, 15:33
You certainly never can know. I worked out the points if the championship had started at Imola and there would be a 4 point gap between Verstappen and Norris, but that would be assuming the race results were all the same which they wouldn’t be.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
28th November 2024, 1:35
Craig, don’t forget that said 4 points gap is considering a period in which the mclaren was the FAR better car, red bull almost makes up with its dominant early races, so by that I’m saying that it’s a negative on norris and mclaren that they haven’t been able to outscore verstappen in the period the car was far stronger.
Tristan
27th November 2024, 9:15
Three cheers for F1 and the FIA committing to diversity and inclusions. I hope they extend that to neurodiversity and not just gender and racial diversity, not all diversity is visible. But still at the end of the day great initiative and has to be applauded.
Glad to see Hamilton’s investments have paid off and are being taken seriously.
notagrumpyfan
27th November 2024, 9:54
And soon we’ll have 8.2 Billion individuals one way or the other involved in global motorsports ;)
Removing roadblocks is great and bias should be eradicated, but in the end you still want the best person at any position in your organisation.
BenHur
27th November 2024, 15:32
Why not include animals, also? Or stones too, for good measure
Tristan
27th November 2024, 18:41
I know this is sarcasm but some traditional belief systems (which have been around for a lot longer than current western models) actually do beg this question.
Everything is alive and everything can evolve. Humanity is incredibly conceited thinking we’re the only thing on Earth that’s worth caring about.
Ian Stephens
27th November 2024, 10:45
Another thing connecting Verstappen’s 2021 and 2024 titles is the timely red flags. Hopefully no-one will argue that the Brazil flag was wrong, nor that Red Bull influenced it, and after two more races it is highly unlikely that this year’s red flag will still be relevant.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
28th November 2024, 1:37
Yes, will not be relevant, even without red flag norris would’ve been in a losing position by the end of the brazil race.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
28th November 2024, 1:38
Simply because verstappen did excellent damage limitation, so there was no significant point gain by norris, which he needed to do to have some decent chance.
Biggsy
27th November 2024, 11:20
People trying really hard to convince us not to believe our own eyes, that the title fight was close, when the title was wrapped up not one, not two, but three races before the end. And with a points difference worth almost 3 race wins.
I don’t remember if points difference even fell below 2 race wins amount.
To call this close, you might as well call 2009 close, when it really wasn’t.
People don’t find Verstappen that impressive, because he has too many flaws.
That doesn’t mean he isn’t extremely fast.
But the only time when he was in a really under pressure, in 2021, he drove like an amateur, and extremely dirty. And you could see the same happening this year, whenever the pressure started to grow even slightly.
S
27th November 2024, 12:55
To be fair, so did his older and much more experienced rival.
Urvaksh (@thedoctor03)
27th November 2024, 19:23
This one was funny!
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
28th November 2024, 1:42
Wow, 2009 is a season I wasn’t following, I only heard about the dominant brawn gp early on and then recovering red bull later on while brawn was struggling, and I was always made to believe it was a close season, but I checked now and vettel never got within 1 race win of catching up to button!
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
28th November 2024, 1:43
Verstappen drove incredibly well in 2021, other than an amateur, he barely threw away points, unlike a certain hamilton.
I can’t find ONE race verstappen lost in 2021 where the red bull was faster that wasn’t due to car issues or being taken out.
Doh
27th November 2024, 11:20
*driver
*too
Wow thanks for the cod. I really ought to double check for spelling errors lol
Doh
27th November 2024, 11:41
And congrats Keith on 15 years full time. I’ve been here about 16 or so