Big lead, but still a long way to go
Max Verstappen has expanded his lead over title rival Charles Leclerc again in France. But that doesn’t mean he and his team can smell the world title yet. Verstappen knows that a lot can still happen.
Things are looking particularly good for Max Verstappen in his pursuit of the second world title in a row. With the win in France and the retirement of Charles Leclerc, the lead in the World Cup standings has now increased to no less than 63 points. There are still ten races to go. Verstappen can retire twice while Leclerc win twice and still lead the championship.
But that doesn’t put the pressure off the kettle. Anything but even, Verstappen is wary of the fast Ferrari: “The lead we have is great, but probably also a bit bigger than it should be, if you only look at the speed of both cars,” Verstappen told The Telegraph. The 24-year-old believes that the speed over one lap, i.e. in qualifying, should be better. There will undoubtedly be difficult weekends to come and then it is important not to doze off and score as many points as possible, “even on a bad day like two weeks ago in Austria.”
Helmut Marko, chief executive of Red Bull’s F1 program, thinks Verstappen will need another three to five wins this year to secure title renewal. He is now on seven wins. “63 points lead is nice, but not enough.” Yet the Austrian also sees that Red Bull has better papers than Ferrari. Not so much in terms of sheer speed, perhaps, but in terms of reliability. “In the title fight you have to be reliable. You can’t afford mistakes and you have to finish.” Finishing is good for Verstappen. Reliability is no longer such a concern as it was at the beginning of this year and significantly better than at Ferrari. Not to mention strategic insight…
.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl