Last year Lewis Hamilton made history winning his 7th F1 Racing Championship in addition to winning the most races ever. Every time he gets in a F1 car he makes history. Right now, he is atop the standings with 195 points after 11 races. He has made the podium 8 times and won 4 races. Following closely behind is Max Verstappen in the Red Bull with 187 points. The 23-year-old has won 5 races and made podium 8 times. However, Max has DNF’d twice. In fact, his last two races were a DNF and 9th place respectively. Red Bull Honda needs to do their part to ensure Max has the best wheels available or he may jump ship to Mercedes at the end of the season. Honda is bowing out of F1 Racing leaving Red Bull looking for another engine maker. Hamilton and Verstappen are far and away the leaders in the club house. But there are other interesting race teams to discuss.
McLaren has greatly improved. Lando Norris is currently 3rd in the Championship Standings with 113 points. He has made podium 3 times. He consistently stays in the top 5 with only two exceptions. However, his latest race was a DNF. He will be looking to have a great race in Belgium at the end of this month.
Ferrari has really improved from last year. Historically considered the toast of Formula 1, Ferrari has significantly fallen off the mark since the Michael Schumacher days. Currently Carlos Sainz is 6th with 83 points and Charles Leclerc is 7th with 80 points in the championship standings. Sainz has two podiums to Leclerc’s one podium. Unfortunately, Leclerc’s ride did not start the Monaco race and DNF’d in Hungary, otherwise he would likely be higher in the standings. Ferrari has a long way to go to bring back the glory years and compete with Mercedes.
Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez round out the top 5 in their Mercedes and Red Bull rides. Red Bull made a great move signing Perez in the off season. Perez ended the season strong in what is now known as the Aston Martin team. This year he has seemingly picked up where he left off consistently finishing in the top 5 with a win in Azerbajian. Bottas continues to race in Hamilton’s shadow. I am not sure how much longer he can endure that.
There are 12 races left this year. It’s anyone’s guess who will win the championship. Right now, Hamilton and Verstappen are neck and neck, far and away above the rest of the crowd. While I would like to see Verstappen win his first championship, I enjoy a great historical moment too.
