Three Weeks. Three Races. Two Dominate Victories. That pretty much sums up rounds’ seven, eight and nine of this year’s Formula One season. Unfortunately, none of the races were particularly interesting. Both McLaren’s podiumed every race while Charles Leclerc managed to earn second at Monaco and third in Spain. Though McLaren dominated the last three races, Max Verstappen remains the main headline.
Verstappen executed the Italian Grand Prix in rare form. He qualified second. At the start, Oscar Piastri took off like a rocket ship. Verstappen trailed Piastri’s outside right corner heading into turn one. As they drove thru the corner, Max squeezed Piastri into the apex, then quickly took the next apex on the S turn, speeding off into the lead. Verstappen proceeded to push his car to its extreme limits to stay out of DRS range. The rest is history. Verstappen went on to win his second race of the season.
The Monaco race continues to be the most boring race of the year, despite the FIA’s efforts to spice it up. This year the FIA opted to declare a mandatory two stop for this race due to the shunt at the beginning of last year’s race wherein everyone on the grid executed their one obligatory stop and no one stopped again. As per usual, this year, the grid hardly changed from qualification to the grand prix checkered flag. Fernando Alonso and Pierre Gasly failed to finish while Verstappen improved from fifth to fourth.
The Spanish Grand Prix showed the potential for an epic showdown between Verstappen and McLaren. Verstappen’s practice times were excellent. He qualified third. Yet, on race day, McLaren found a level of pace that the Red Bull couldn’t match. Red Bull also opted to execute a three-stop strategy. Had they been able to execute a two stop, Verstappen would have secured his third victory of the year.
Red Bull’s strategy for Spain was built around a deficient car. They added to their woes by using up most of their tires leaving them with only four sets for the race. Red Bull started on a new set of softs. Then, they switched to a new set of soft’s and then planned to end the race on fresh mediums leaving only one set of hard tires left.
Despite the three-stop strategy, Verstappen was a mere 2.8 seconds behind Lando Norris on lap 55. With eleven laps to go, Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes suffered engine failure on turn ten forcing a double yellow flag. For some unknown reason, Red Bull ordered Verstappen to pit.
Red Bull is falling apart at the seams. Their strategy pre-race and on race day was extremely suspect. First, they didn’t leave themselves with an overage of competitive tires for the end of the race. Second, knowing that they only had hard tires, they should have left him on the track. His worn in mediums would have secured him a podium. Instead, they changed him to the hard set of tires causing him significant problems. Just because that was their only set of tires left, doesn’t mean they had to use them…but they did.
Verstappen compounded these issues by failing to reign in his frustration. At the restart, Leclerc jumped on Max quick and they had a minor collision going down the pit straight. While Verstappen was fuming about that, George Russell ran Verstappen off the track.
Verstappen was able to regain his position when he rejoined the track. However, his team wrongly ordered him to give the place back. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back of Red Bull errors. Once again, Red Bull should have let Verstappen finish the race out, hopefully securing a top five finish. Instead, they insisted Max give Russell the position. In a flash of anger, as Russell was passing him by, Verstappen slammed into him.
Verstappen’s actions are absolutely the wrong thing to do. Yet, his actions are understandable. He was frustrated. His team let him down. He felt Russell was being unjustly rewarded. No matter how true his thoughts were, his temper tantrum cost him and team significant points in both the drivers and constructor’s championship. Tantrum aside, the biggest take away is that McLaren has their act together and Red Bull simply doesn’t.
McLaren is miles ahead of everyone on the grid. The only thing keeping Red Bull in the hunt is Max Verstappen.
It remains to be seen which of the McLaren drivers will win the championship. Though, Lando has more experience, Oscar seems to be much cooler under pressure. Both are excellent drivers.
Ferrari is currently a distant second followed closely by Mercedes. Only six points separate the teams. Red Bull is fifteen points behind Mercedes. It is doubtful that anyone will close the gap to McLaren. The real fun is watching Ferrari, Mercedes and Max Verstappen duke it out.
On to Canada!
