The next Formula One season is fast approaching, and there are very few people who would bet on a podium finish for the 2019 title. At the head of this pack? Max Verstappen, who has been widely regarded as one of the most exciting drivers in F1 since his debut in 2016. However, some experts question whether he will be able to keep up with Lewis Hamilton if their cars continue to run at similar speeds despite changes made by Mercedes engineers which have seen him increase from 1:36s per lap last year to 1:35s per lap so far this year.
Max Verstappen has been in the lead for the F1 title since last year, but with just a few races left, it’s possible that he could lose the championship. Read more in detail here: f1 news.
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO — Max Verstappen’s hold on the 2021 Formula One championship seems to be stronger than ever with four races left.
On Sunday, he won his eighth race of the season, putting him 19 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the championship standings, with 107 points (including those for the Brazil sprint race and fastest laps) still up for grabs.
It’s far from finished, but with Verstappen riding a wave of two straight wins into Brazil, a continuation of his current form in the next two races may see him seal up the championship by the last round in Saudi Arabia.
Despite this, all three drivers on the podium in Mexico had cause to be pleased.
Verstappen won for the seventh time this season, thanks to a spectacular Turn 1 overtaking on both Mercedes cars. This track was always going to suit his Red Bull vehicle, but he still had a task to perform after qualifying third behind the two Mercedes drivers, and he did it flawlessly. If he’s worried about the championship race, it’s not shown in his driving.
Of course, Mercedes and Hamilton wanted to win the race after securing the first row of the grid, but the speed of the two Red Bulls in the race meant Hamilton could easily have slipped to third and lost three more points to Verstappen. The job currently confronting Hamilton to win his ninth title is enormous, but it might have been much greater based on sheer performance.
Sergio Perez should have been the least happy of the three drivers after failing to pass Hamilton for second place in the final stint of the race, but it was impossible to keep a smile off his face after the 135,000-strong crowd went into party mode to celebrate a Mexican driver’s first podium at the Mexican Grand Prix.
Why did Red Bull win the race by such a large margin?
As soon as he went ahead of the Mercedes cars, Max Verstappen took command of the Mexican Grand Prix. Getty Images/Peter Fox
Starting first and second and finishing second and 15th isn’t ideal, but the Mercedes vehicle just couldn’t compete with the Red Bull across a racing distance in Mexico.
Mercedes was astonished by the car’s performance on Saturday, which it attributed to the soft compound tyres reaching a performance sweet spot during a single lap. Red Bull, on the other hand, was unable to get optimum performance from the soft tyres, and by Saturday evening, it had figured out why.
However, having the tyres in the proper performance window for a single lap is one thing; holding them there for the whole 71-lap race is another, and the Red Bull was better prepared to look for its tyres throughout the course of the race.
Aside from the differences in vehicle performance, the Mexican Grand Prix would have been a lot more exciting if Verstappen hadn’t overtaken Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas at the start.
Bottas was expected to lead the group from pole position and provide Hamilton a slipstream down to the first turn, according to Mercedes’ pre-race briefing. When Bottas couldn’t pull away from the line as quickly as Hamilton, they were forced to run side by side, giving the two Red Bulls behind them a slipstream.
Verstappen had a clean look at the lead as Bottas left a wide space on his left side on the run to the first turn. Following the race, it was clear that Hamilton was taken aback by his teammate’s position.
“I’d imagined things differently, clearly,” Hamilton added, “in the sense that if Valtteri had had a better start, I would have attempted to get into his tow.” “But I was clearly beside him, which was nice, and then I was just protecting my side of the track, making sure no one could come up the inside, so I was trying to keep whatever Red Bull I could see in my mirror behind me.”
“I assumed Valtteri would do the same, but he certainly left the way open for Max, who was on the racing line and did a fantastic job braking into Turn 1. There was no chance for me since I was on the inside and in the dirt.”
Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team leader, went even farther, claiming that Bottas had just left the door open for Verstappen.
He answered, “Yeah, it shouldn’t happen.” “I believe there were two automobiles in front of us, and we seemed to open up the sea for Max to come around the outside.”
“However, Valtteri’s vehicle spinning and losing all of his points when he might have finished third or fourth is infuriating to say the least.”
Bottas’ stance, on the other hand, should not detract from Verstappen’s overtaking. It was the kind of maneuver that defined him as a driver: aggressive, late on the brakes, and achieving the apparently impossible. Overtakes like the one in Mexico City will be the reason he wins the championship in the following races.
Let’s pretend he hadn’t gone by Hamilton and Verstappen was in second when Daniel Ricciardo turned Bottas around. Was it conceivable for Mercedes to win from there?
“To be honest, the most of the things that went wrong happened early in the race,” Mercedes trackside engineer Andrew Shovlin remarked. “We didn’t have the quickest vehicle, and winning the race without two cars and the ability to utilize them strategically would have been very tough.”
“Max would have sat behind us, and either we could have gone extremely early [with our pit stop] or he could have undercut us, but once we fell back off the start, it was always going to be a problem.”
When Hamilton fell to second, it was evident that Verstappen had a racing speed that Mercedes couldn’t match. The track was hotter than it was on Saturday, so taking care of the back tyres was crucial, and this has been a clear Red Bull strength in the second part of the season. It was a feat in and of itself for Hamilton to keep Perez behind him for the next 70 laps.
Hamilton’s task in the first stint was to keep Perez from getting close enough to gain a strategic advantage. Perez had the option to pit, put on new tyres, and utilize the additional performance to undercut the Mercedes once he was within 1.5 seconds of Hamilton. Of course, Mercedes was aware of Perez’s danger, which is why Hamilton was pitted exactly as Perez entered the window to try the undercut.
But it was vital that Hamilton make it to lap 30 before pitting. Perez could theoretically have done the undercut from lap 23 onwards and still finished the race. Hamilton made things easy for himself in the second part of the race by limiting Perez’s tyre advantage in the final stages by keeping the Red Bull at bay and postponing the defense against the undercut until lap 30.
With lap 41, Perez pitted and returned to the track on tyres that were 11 laps younger than Hamilton’s, enabling him to close down on the Mercedes and attempt another overtake. However, it quickly became apparent that overtaking at Mexico City’s high altitude is difficult.
When it comes to overtaking, the thin air at 2,200 meters limits the vehicles in two ways: the wings provide less downforce and everything overheats. Because of the reduced downforce, the following vehicle slides more while it is in the foul air of the car ahead of it, causing the tyres to overheat as they brush against the track surface.
The tyres give less traction and slip more as the temperature rises. The more they slide, the more they overheat and give less grip, causing a downward performance cycle that, when paired with Mercedes’ straight-line speed advantage over the Red Bull, allowed Hamilton to maintain Perez in second position.
Is Verstappen’s title in jeopardy?
Max Verstappen is poised to win his first Formula One title. Getty Images/Mark Thompson
Verstappen’s chances of winning the championship have dwindled considerably during the last two races. His two efforts in North America have not only been world champion-worthy, but they have also helped him build a sizable lead in the standings only three races after regaining the lead from Hamilton in Turkey.
The 23-year-old is currently the overwhelming favorite to win the competition.
But, as is customary in sports, the game isn’t done until it’s over. Verstappen will not be at ease until it is mathematically impossible for Hamilton to win the championship.
Verstappen is avoiding to get ahead of himself since one blown engine or damaged tyre could still determine the title.
Verstappen said, “I don’t trust in momentum.” “So, every race, we have to try to nail the minutiae, and we didn’t do that yesterday [in qualifying], so you know, things can go wrong or right very fast.”
“As a result, it’ll be tense and thrilling all the way to the conclusion. This has always been a strong track for us, so I don’t anticipate Brazil to be as strong as it was today.”
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