MONTREAL – Max Verstappen looks unstoppable at the moment. The defending world champion has won six of the seven races he has completed this year.
At Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix, he struggled to win all the way to the line, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz trailing him for 15 laps to the finish and finishing 0.9 seconds behind. in checkered flags.
In what is becoming his hallmark, Verstappen is ice cold under that pressure, almost rhythmically, lap after lap. He showed it a few times last year in similar situations to Lewis Hamilton.
Sainz was unable to get close enough to get past Verstappen and the mistake he needed to capture this moment never materialized.
“Max is in the state of his life right now, purely clinical,” said Red Bull boss Christian Horner after the race.
Horner then added: “He drove some great races last year under great pressure, you think back to Austin etc etc. He’s got more experience and he’s just a driver. very complete”.
Verstappen is 46 points behind Charles Leclerc after the Australian Grand Prix in April, having two reliability issues in the opening three races. Verstappen’s lead over Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez is now equal to Leclerc, who has not won a race since Melbourne, three points behind.
It is indeed a stepping stone to two full-race victories over his closest rivals, but F1’s calendar means we’re still not halfway through the season – 13 races still to go. between now and the end of November. While it could be easy to start scanning down the schedule of the remaining events to see how the original Verstappen might end things on this current trajectory, he doesn’t. take it for granted.
“There’s still a very long way to go,” Verstappen said in his post-race press conference. “I know the gap is of course quite large, but I also know that it can change very quickly.
“I mean, [after] The third race, I was 46 behind, so we just need to stay calm, we need to focus and we need to improve because today we weren’t the fastest. “
Ferrari agrees with Verstappen’s assessment of speed. The team feels that it has the fastest car on race day, which changes the story of the season so far.
While Leclerc dominated qualifying on Saturday, Verstappen and Red Bull have often had the faster race pack lately, and they’ve got six straight wins to show for that.
Ferrari’s chances of capitalizing on that speedy race car were thwarted early in the race weekend, with Leclerc taking a back-to-net penalty for a full power unit shift, a consequence of team installation reliability issues.
Sainz, whose season has been disappointing so far, was the one left behind to prevent Red Bull’s win but he was only able to start in the second row after being edged out by Alpine’s Fernando Alonso. type in wet condition.
That meant Verstappen was allowed to run far from the start without any pressure from behind as Sainz took a moment to make his way through the slower Alpine range. Sainz took the lead at one stage as he and Verstappen worked out clearing strategies, but both Ferrari and Red Bull doubted Sainz as the man to win the race.
The late safety car gave Sainz the perfect opportunity and he said he left nothing on the table when he harassed Verstappen in the final laps.
“I gave it all,” the Spaniard said afterwards. “I risked everything, you know, over the curb, against the wall, and had a few moments out there in the dirty air.
“I got close a few times, but not enough to really move down inside anywhere. But I can tell you I pushed.”
Given the way Sainz has struggled this year, it’s easy to wonder if the outcome could have been different if Leclerc had chased the final Verstappen. Binotto applauded Sainz’s improved race but pointed out he has damaged his chances of winning his first F1 win on Saturday.
“I think Carlos had a strong race today. Good pace, good driver and, as he said, I think he was very, very close and so we can have a great day. today when he is more and more confident,” said Binotto.
“To win today with such a close fight with Red Bull and Max, you need to be perfect all weekend. If anything, yesterday’s imperfect qualifiers from Carlos and Max were perfect. that could cost him today. Because being ahead or chasing is definitely another matter.”
That saying is very true. Beating Verstappen at the moment requires the perfect weekend, and Ferrari has been found to lack comprehensively in terms of strategy, reliability and, in Sainz’s case on Saturday and Sunday, the performance needed to beat him, too often in the past two months.
Leclerc showed earlier this season he is capable of putting together a weekend beat Verstappen and he still looks the most likely candidate to take on the Dutch driver of the year. , especially if Ferrari continues to deliver the car quickly on Sunday. .
Speaking of his 49-point shortfall in the championship, Leclerc said: “It motivates me. It motivates me because of course I know speed is in the car.
“I’m not worried, I’m just super motivated to finally have a clean weekend and show that we’re here and we’re strong. So at Silverstone, hopefully we can do it. get that.” –
Can Ferrari fix its problems?
Ferrari has a mountain to climb in both championships and it is still working to fix the reliability issues. Haas and Alfa Romeo customer groups are growing increasingly frustrated by Ferrari’s problems, and Mick Schumacher’s retirement from a promising position in Montreal is due to a power unit failure.
Reliability can be a two-way street and it wasn’t long ago that it looked like Red Bull, not Ferrari, could lose the championship because of car troubles. Perez’s inability to finish after a suspected transmission failed is a reminder that Red Bull is not immune to problems of their own.
“I don’t think reliability will be the only factor, I think growth between now and the end of the season is another factor as well as budget constraints and reliability as well,” Binotto said last night. Sunday.
“The power supply is a completely new design compared to before and the problem we have is because we have a young project and on top of that we have limitations on dynos that weren’t there before so we I can’t run. As much on the dyno, we’re limited. That means the exercise is more complicated.”
Of course, Red Bull is constrained by the same budget cap, but with a lead in good points, fewer reliability issues to worry about and a superstar racer that seems to get better after Every weekend that went by, it felt a lot like the Milton Keynes championship losing at this point.
