Unstoppable Max Verstappen lets the sparks fly from his Red Bull. Photo / Don Kennedy
When Max Verstappen won the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest, it was his 44th Formula One career victory and he joked that he didn’t want to stay on that number long, because Lewis Hamilton races with number 44.
He didn’t have to wait long to make it win number 45. Just a week in fact, because on Monday morning (NZT), he won the Belgian Grand Prix after starting from sixth on the grid.
Although he was fastest in qualifying, he had to take a five-place grid penalty after his team had to make changes to the gearbox on his Red Bull car.
Verstappen is no stranger to winning despite not always starting at the front of the grid. In Miami earlier in the season, he won from ninth on the grid, much to the chagrin of his teammate Sergio “Checo” Perez, who started that race on pole position and was overtaken by Verstappen with 10 laps to go.
Perez started the Belgian GP from second on the grid, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc inherited pole position with Verstappen’s penalty, but Perez took the lead from Leclerc by passing him just after Eau Rouge on lap one.
Thereafter he was on the team radio asking where Verstappen was and was soon told he was right behind him. It only took the flying Dutchman 17 laps to take the lead off his teammate and drive off to a 17-second advantage at the finish line.
The only threat to Verstappen, apart from the inclement Spa weather, was his ambition to win by the greatest margin possible and take an extra point for the fastest lap on the way.
There was a testy team radio exchange between Verstappen and his race engineer, Gianpere “GP” Lambiase, towards the end of the race. The latter pointed out that his first set of tyres had shown “reasonable degradation” and asked Verstappen to “use his head a bit more”.
Verstappen came back with a rather indignant response: “I could also push on and we do another stop? A bit of pit stop training.”
“No. Not this time,” Lambiase replied.
Clearly, it was Verstappen’s intention to put enough of a gap between himself and Perez so he could pit before the penultimate lap and go for the fastest lap. In the end, it was Hamilton who had the luxury of doing that by clinching the fastest lap and maintaining his fourth-place finish, but Verstappen was asked if his messages to his race engineer were semi-serious.
“Probably 50/50 on the messages,” he said. “I know that the team doesn’t like to do another stop, but I like to mention it so they might get a bit nervous. I like the response, ‘No, no, we are not doing that today.’ It’s fine. We know each other very well and we have a very good relationship.”
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has defended that relationship.
“GP and Max have been together since the first race that Max stepped into the car,” he told the media. “Max is a demanding customer and you’ve got to be a strong character to deal with that. GP, he’s our Jason Statham [the action movie actor] equivalent, they certainly look alike, and he deals with him firmly but fair.
“There’s a great deal of respect between the two of them and that comes out of a mutual trust that you must have between an engineer and the only problem is that conversation between the two of them has 200 million people listening.”
Verstappen’s win is his 10th in 12 races and eighth consecutive win. Red Bull have won all 12 races, as Perez has two victories. Horner finds himself defending the team’s success, which includes a new record of winning the first 12 races in a season.
“I know it might not be popular with the fans because it’s predictable, but we’re just focused on trying to extract the best we can,” Horner said.
“And it’s a very special moment for this team because it’s historic, 1988 was the last time that anything like this was achieved, and to think that we’ve been the team that has been able to break that is something we could have only dreamed about.”
For the race winner, it means a championship lead of 125 points over Perez, the equivalent of five race wins. Mathematically, Perez is still in the championship, but he has found out yet again that he cannot beat Verstappen if he finishes the race, because he can’t match his speed and confidence, despite having the same car. Verstappen is marching quickly towards a third championship, which could be his in three races’ time.
After a month off, the next race in his home Grand Prix at Zandvoort, followed by the Italian GP and Singapore in mid-September He is understandably happy with the current situation.
“I knew that the car was going to be quick today, and this is one of the best tracks to drive when you have a good car,” Verstappen said.
“GP and I were just having a laugh today, we’re honest with each other and that’s how we operate, there’s no need to worry.
“We’re definitely enjoying the moment, but we also want to keep this momentum and level for a long time, so hopefully after the summer break we’re strong again in Zandvoort.”
For Perez, it was a question of accepting he was second-best.
“Today was a good day for the team. The race started really well and then Max came through strong, especially on the second stint where he pulled away. After he overtook, it was all about bringing it home for the team and managing the pace until the end, that was the main objective.”
Perez had to concede that Verstappen is simply unstoppable.
“I mean, there’s nothing to be taken away from Max certainly. He did a tremendous race, and he has done a tremendous season.”
Leclerc seemed content with a podium finish, faring better than teammate Carlos Sainz, whose collision at the first corner with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri ended both their races.
Leclerc had no answer for the pace of the Red Bulls, but was able to keep Hamilton behind him.
“Third was the best result we could have achieved today,” Leclerc conceded. “We knew that the Red Bulls would be quicker than us, so our target was to maximise points with the package we have, and we did that.
“It’s good to finish this first half with a podium and hopefully we can maximise our package at the upcoming races after the break too.”
Hamilton was complaining after the race that the bouncing, which plagued the Mercedes for much of last year, has returned.
“It was a non-eventful race for me today with not a huge amount going on,” he said.
“I was unable to keep up with the cars ahead of me and was struggling in the beginning. We know the rear is our biggest issue and then we had some bouncing this weekend. At the end I was keeping the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc within a few seconds, but couldn’t get any closer.”
Hamilton is now just one point behind Fernando Alonso for third place in the championship, although the latter, who turned 42 on the Saturday, finished fifth, to indicate Aston Martin is still in the battle for third place in the Constructors’ championship, but Mercedes seems to have the second-best car.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was asked if he felt that Verstappen’s radio messages could be viewed as cocky.
“He has all the reason, all reasons to be cheeky,” Wolff replied. “He’s just driving everybody else around in circles and it’s on merit. There’s nothing else to say and you’ve just got to watch that. On the one hand, as much as it is annoying... that’s just about the lot.”
In Wolff’s view, Perez is his team’s target.
“I think you just need to take Max out of the equation. The second Red Bull is where we are. Without Verstappen, it would be a fantastic season and close racing. But you know, in sport, the stopwatch never lies. There’s just one guy in one car that’s above everything else and we’ve just got to catch up. There’s no choice.”
It is unusual for a team rival to accept another car or team is unstoppable, but that is the inference to be drawn from Wolff’s comments. Verstappen is in a league of his own, and on course to set more records with 10 races still to go in the championship.
Sources: F1.com; Sky Sport; Red Bull Racing.
OPINION: Sport, with its fine margins such as this, can be beautiful and brutal.