Formula 1

VERSTAPPEN THE BEST DRIVER IN F1!

Published

3 years ago

09/08/2020

Max Verstappen is very happy with his victory after the 70th anniversary Grand Prix. The win came as a surprise, but nevertheless the Dutchman thinks that everything went perfectly on Sunday afternoon.

During the podium interview, Verstappen speaks freely about the expectations he had before the race. “I really didn’t see it coming”, says Verstappen to Martin Brundle. “But after the first stint I started to see that we could handle the tires very well.”

“The question was whether Mercedes really did it that badly,” Max continues. “But we had no problems at all with the tires nor the speed. Everything went smoothly and actually perfect. We had more speed due to the better tires and were therefore able to keep pushing. I am really happy that we won.”

Verstappen avoids the question of whether he will be just as competitive next week (at the Spanish GP). “I am especially happy that we have won today. We’ll see what happens next week.”

You can’t say Verstappen is outright the best driver in Formula 1 right now, but you can certainly make a strong case for him being equal best.

And that’s saying a lot because Hamilton is one of the very greatest grand prix drivers of all time. This is why we need to see the two going head-to-head on equal terms.

Both are stunningly quick, but also very well rounded drivers with no significant weaknesses. As Verstappen showed today he can match the remarkable tyre management ability of Hamilton in a race situation and they are both drivers capable of extracting the absolute maximum out of a package and galvanising a team around them.

You can pick any of the great rivalries in grand prix history and these two could match that for ability, so it would be a titanic fight. That’s why it’s so important that, at some point in the next few years before Hamilton retires, we really do get these two going head to head for the title on equal footing.

Hamilton is already proven to be a great, Verstappen has shown he’s in that class and is already what you might call a ‘provisional great’. He just needs the machinery to earn the volume of wins and titles to prove it beyond any argument.

Verstappen’s maturity and forward thinking is now really coming into play. Committing to the hard tyre for Q2 was big decision and it would have been very easy to have done it and backed out of it late in that session but no, he and Red bull stuck with it and knew that lap was going to be tight but should be OK. If not, he would have been 11th on the grid with an open tyre choice so Red Bull wouldn’t have lost everything.

There are tracks in the championship that mean a lot to drivers and Silverstone is right up there so for Verstappen this was probably one of his best wins. He, together with the team’s strategy, went from fourth on the grid to beat – and I really mean beat – the dominance of Mercedes and both its drivers.

If you start in fourth behind two Mercedes cars at Silverstone and in a race without any outside influences like virtual or actual safety cars beat both of them and win the race then you can go home with a big smile on your face.

You could hear him on the radio to his engineer. He is totally at home with his situation and on top of that he has the mental capacity to be relaxed and add some fun into the conversation. Yes, you could say it’s easy when things are looking good and it reduces the stress on the driver and if that’s what it takes then more of it please.

We all know that the Red Bull car is not exactly where it needs to be this year yet so I’m really looking forward to when it really gets on top of it.

We're definitely going to celebrate this one! 🏆 @Max33Verstappen just too quick today… 💪🏁 #F170 🇬🇧 #ChargeOn 🤘 pic.twitter.com/aGtt7FMYrb— Aston Martin Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) August 9, 2020