The almost endless opening sequence of the Shanghai International Circuit — which almost loops back upon itself before ultimately veering left at the last moment — is said to be fashioned after the Yin and Yang of Chinese Taoist philosophy.
Representing two different sides of the same whole, it is a concept that can be applied to so much in life. Be it art, science, relationships – and even motorsport.Over the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix weekend, the first to be a part of the Formula 1 calendar in five years, eventual race winner Max Verstappen demonstrated his duality as a driver. From being utterly uncompromising in the pursuit of perfection, to still finding joy in achieving that, all 58 grand prix victories later.
For reasons known only to FOM, China was chosen as the site for the first sprint race weekend of 2024, despite F1’s teams and drivers not having raced there for half a decade. Although Verstappen did not start that race from pole, he successfully chased down fellow multiple world champions Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton for the lead before pulling out a 13-second margin over 11 laps with crushingly consistent pace.
Despite his massive margin of victory, Verstappen was not satisfied. He wanted to improve the car into qualifying and the race further. He reportedly told Dutch media that he puts more value on his feeling in the car than he does on how far his rivals are behind him in a sprint race – showing just how single-minded the world champion is in maximising every result each time he climbs into the cockpit.
Alonso gave Aston Martin their best starting position of the season in third, while Friday’s sprint pole winner Lando Norris would lead the two McLarens in fourth. With concerns about how the tyres would last around the long, sweeping corners on the Chinese circuit, none of the top ten starters opted to fit softs for their opening stint.
On the three previous occasions Verstappen and Perez had started a grand prix from the front row together, Perez had never once beaten his team mate to the first corner first. When the lights went out, Verstappen ensured that record would not be spoiled. He moved right to cover the inside line but before Perez could look to the outside, Alonso was already drawing alongside him.
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Perez had to filter in behind his team mate and stick to the inside, allowing Alonso to sweep around the Red Bull as Verstappen emerged from the unconventional first corner with his lead intact. Perez considered challenging Alonso into turn six but thought better of it, soon having to concern himself with Norris behind him. Heading onto the 1.3 kilometre back straight for the first time, Verstappen was already around a second ahead of Alonso with Perez leading the two McLarens of Norris and Oscar Piastri while George Russell had jumped both Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jnr in to sixth.
Even though his Red Bull had far more fuel in it than Saturday’s sprint race, Verstappen was in the low 1’41s throughout the early laps. But while Perez was also in the 1’41s, half a second a lap slower than his team mate, Norris had the potential to match the second Red Bull. After he moved by Alonso into third at the hairpin on lap seven, Norris was not just able to match Perez ahead, but even edged towards the second Red Bull.
Verstappen’s lead was just under ten seconds on lap 13 when Red Bull decided to bring in the race leader for his first stop and a set of hard tyres. Much as Mercedes had memorably done in the last Chinese Grand Prix five years ago, Red Bull brought in both cars at the end of the lap, with Perez following Verstappen into the box for service just seconds after his team mate had left it.
Norris assumed the lead. McLaren chose to call Piastri in from fourth but asked Norris to extend, which he was more than happy to do. But it was not long before Verstappen, fresh tyres fitted, closed on Norris, eased past the McLaren in the DRS zone along the back straight and regained the lead of the race.
Running close behind Nico Hulkenberg, Bottas was looking to put the Haas under pressure, but as he exited turn 10 there was a sudden release of pressure inside Bottas’s Ferrari power unit. As his car shut off, smoke lightly rising from the rear, Bottas pulled off the track.
Yellow flags waved for almost a full lap as the Sauber sat off the track, Bottas climbed out and fixed his steering wheel back on his car. A Virtual Safety Car period looked inevitable – but to Norris’ great aggravation it was triggered just as he passed the pit entrance.
“Are you fucking joking me?” Norris spat on his radio. “Ugh. I fucking knew it…”
“Tell me about it,” race engineer Will Joseph replied.
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The VSC fell perfectly for Leclerc, who pitted for hard tyres, allowing him to rejoin in fifth behind Alonso. However, a dozen marshals were struggling to shift the stricken Sauber, which was stuck in gear. This allowed Norris to make his stop under the VSC after all.
After five full laps at reduced speeds, the Safety Car returned to the pits at the end of the 26th lap. The 19 remaining drivers may have hundreds of Safety Car restarts’ worth of experience between them, but even that was not enough to prevent what eventually turned out to be one of the messiest attempts at a restart in recent memory.
Verstappen, leading the field, chose to time his launch at the apex of the hairpin – the most obvious point to do so. Norris, Leclerc, Perez and Sainz followed him, while Alonso tried to leave a little margin to the Ferrari ahead, only to find it closing quickly on the way into the corner. He braked hard and locked his front wheels lightly, setting off a chain reaction.
George Russell, Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo all had to suddenly slow in ever increasing urgencies. However, Lance Stroll could not avoid the car ahead and shunted Ricciardo into Piastri, damaging all three cars and littering the hairpin with debris.
As everyone in the pack tried to react to whatever had just happened in front of them, Verstappen led Norris and Leclerc away for the restart. At turn six, Kevin Magnussen battled with Yuki Tsunoda over 14th, but contact at the exit send the RB driver spinning and tore Tsunoda’s right-rear tyre from the wheel.
With two separate hazard zones around the circuit, Bernd Maylander returned to the track soon almost immediately after he had returned the comfort of the pit lane. After a round of thorough track cleaning which ticked four more laps away from those remaining, Verstappen led the field around for the second restart. Thankfully, however, the field were much more behaved this time around and the race successfully resumed with Verstappen leading Norris, Leclerc, Perez, Alonso on softs and Sainz in sixth. Unfortunately, Ricciardo proved to be too heavily damaged to continue and retired shortly after.
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Verstappen pulled away from Norris with ease. But Perez put Leclerc under pressure for third for multiple laps until he dived down the inside of the Ferrari into turn six on lap 39, resisting Leclerc’s subsequent attempt at a counter-attack on the exit to take third place. Perez now had five seconds to make up on Norris with his 15-lap-old hard tyres catch him for second, but was further away from the McLaren than Norris himself was from leader Verstappen.
“Once you go by the car ahead and you stop fighting, then it’s really game over,” Perez explained after the race. “You use so much of your tyre. You put so much energy into them that they never really come back. It’s quite a high deg place and I paid the price.”
Alonso pitted out of his softs onto mediums on lap 43, promoting Sainz to fifth place. Over the next four laps, Alonso passed Alexander Albon, Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg before cruising up to the rear of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes.
Rounding the final corner to begin lap 49, Alonso was a little too greedy on the exit and dipped his outside tyres into the gravel trap, causing them to break traction much like Sainz had in the previous day’s qualifying session. Luckily for Aston Martin, Alonso’s reflexes were quick enough for him to catch the catch before he could lose control completely.
Almost as if he had been charged by the jolt of adrenaline he would have received from the moment, Alonso went on to pass both Hamilton and Piastri over the following lap, moving up into the seventh place where he would eventually finish.
Out front, however, Verstappen appeared as comfortable and controlled as he so often is in the lead of a race. Like the sprint race, his advantage out front was now easily over 10 seconds – Norris only just rounding the hairpin by the time Verstappen reached the finishing line. There seemed to be nothing that could concern the race leader – until, with just three laps remaining, he ran over some small remnants of Zhou’s front wing endplate that had suddenly fallen off the Sauber down the back straight.
“I might have run over a little bit of debris,” Verstappen warned his team. “Check my tyres.” But Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase assured him that there was nothing of concern showing in the team’s data and the leader could breathe easy once again.
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It had not been the perfect first sprint round of the 2024 season for the world champion, missing out on sprint pole on Friday. But the new lifting of parc ferme restrictions before grand prix qualifying had allowed him to perfect his car’s settings ahead of the most important sessions of the weekend and he had certainly made the most of that.
“Look at the onboard now…” he instructed Lambiase before he hit the brakes for the hairpin. As Verstappen passed the apex, he planted his right foot and kicked the rear of the Red Bull out, leaving a streak of black rubber on the exit to the delight of the thousands watching on in the grandstand. At the end of three days of the precise, perfectionist Verstappen, this was the other side of the coin – the fun-loving, confident Verstappen. Yin and Yang.
Verstappen rounded the final corner to take the chequered flag in China for the first time. Norris claimed second place 13 seconds later to his great surprise. The podium finish also appeared unexpected by engineer Joseph too, as he forgot to direct his driver to the grid after the cooldown lap to join Verstappen, Perez and Zhou, who was given a special parking spot to savour the adulation of the Shanghai spectators.
Perez failed in his mission to hunt Norris down for second, finishing ultimately further behind the McLaren than he had been when he passed Leclerc. Ferrari finished fourth and fifth with Leclerc and Sainz, with Russell taking a respectable sixth place after another underwhelming grand prix for Mercedes. Alonso recovered to seventh by the finish, with Piastri, Hamilton and Hulkenberg completing the top ten.
“This was definitely one that I wanted to win,” he said. “I’ve been on the podium here, but I haven’t won here before, so that was great, for sure. I definitely just enjoyed the whole weekend.”
But that celebratory burnout out of the hairpin for the final time seemed like the only moment of jubilation that he would allow himself. Because less than an hour after taking the flag, Verstappen’s focus was already on how he could do even better next time in Miami – where nothing less than perfection would do.
“It’s a completely different track,” he said. “Different tyres, different Tarmac, so you never know. We need to be perfect. Need to try and be perfect. We need to always try and find the best set-up on the car to be able to show performances like we did today. So that’s what we’ll try to do.”
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2024 Chinese Grand Prix
- Aston Martin petitions FIA to review Alonso’s penalty for Sainz collision
- “You need to be more on it”: 12 unheard radio exchanges from the Chinese GP
- Ricciardo needs to show “head-turning form” for 2025 chance – Horner
- With fourth format change in as many years, F1 relegated sprint races to a sideshow
- Williams accept ‘harsh but correct’ penalty for Sargeant
F1 race reviews
- Verstappen springs Red Bull back to winning ways at unexpectedly warm Suzuka
- Sainz shows surgical precision as Verstappen’s hopes melt in Melbourne
- Virtually unbeatable Verstappen puts simracing aside to collect Jeddah win
- Amid accusations, Red Bull resume “business as usual” with crushing one-two
- Mission complete for Verstappen as Ferrari fall short of their final objective
Sonny Crockett (@sonnycrockett)
22nd April 2024, 8:47
Remember back in the day, when you’d look forward to race weekend? You might even have watched FP1 and FP2, such was your excitement at what Sunday might have in store.
Compare that to the current era of F1.
I know there’s been dominance before but I don’t recall ever feeling so ‘meh’ when it comes to the prospect of a Grand Prix weekend.
The tinkering around with format probably doesn’t help. Suddenly finding out that qualy is on a Friday or that the Sprint Race takes place at 2am can be disorienting and breaks fans’ long-established F1 weekend routines. More than anything though, it’s the absolute certainty that, save for a rare mechanical issue, one driver is pretty-much nailed-on to driver off into the distance. I mean, 13 seconds ahead in a Sprint Race. 13 seconds!!!
Sonny Crockett (@sonnycrockett)
22nd April 2024, 8:49
“drive off” not “driver off”.
Autocorrect is a cruel mistress!
GmP (@gmp)
23rd April 2024, 6:32
I don’t know about others, but I look forward to next weekend. Live in Miami. Hope that Max wins, and very likely some good racing behind him.
I do remember back in the day, from my earliest moments watching F1 live at Zandvoort. Looked forward to every race weekend then, just as I do now. Not much has changed for me.
mark Bloem
22nd April 2024, 8:53
I can relate to what you’re saying. A lot of people felt the same thing during the dominant Hamilton Mercedes years.
baasbas
22nd April 2024, 9:19
@sonnycrockett
Unless something weird happens you know ’25 will be the same.
I get what you’re saying but I find the domination bearable because ’26 will be very very interesting. I’ve accepted we’re locked in to the current situation until then. I’m looking at the bright side, the current story arc will at least not continue for 7 years in a row. And there is a lot to like if you exclude first place
What are your thoughts on ’26?
Sonny Crockett (@sonnycrockett)
22nd April 2024, 11:01
I envy your optimism!
2026 may well be the reset we need. I just can’t believe that I have to age by 2 full years before that happens!
Charlie Racing
22nd April 2024, 11:39
2026 will be more of the same. As in, one team dominating. New rules do that. I hope they won’t change the rules for 10 years after 2026, because that combined with the budget cap will give close battling.
Invisiblekid (@invisiblekid)
22nd April 2024, 14:47
We said that before in 22 and look how long that lasted.
Invisiblekid (@invisiblekid)
22nd April 2024, 14:51
Pressed return too early.
26 is a bigger change, but in the last 20 years, how long after a first year rule change did it take for things to get back to normal?
Im praying and 26 will be the year I re-sub to Sky Sports, but it won’t be under a long contract.
AlanD
22nd April 2024, 23:43
26? Didn’t they make the same bold claims for 22….. new rules, closer racing, more overtaking, and what was it they said back in whenever it was before that,…. new rules, closer racing, more overtaking. F1 2026 will have about three weeks of curiosity whilst we get bombared with new liveries and a miniscule amount of testing, and then we’ll be saying “Yeah, but when the rules change again next time in 2033, it will be closer racing with more overtking”.
miciek (@micio)
22nd April 2024, 9:39
We did have dominations in the past but I don’t think it was that bad TBH.
Don’t get me wrong but I expect that if a driver makes a mistake in wet conditions and starts 4th for a race that has 19 laps and no pit stops, he doesn’t finish 15 seconds ahead of the pole sitter.
osnola
22nd April 2024, 13:22
The difference between the domination of the past, like by lewis, is that Verstappen is near perfect.
For two years he never slips up, never is distracted and the mechanical problems are rare.
Compared with lewis, who often made mistakes or lost his interest in the second half of the year when he was sure of a WDC is enormous.
So, yes there is domination. But this time there is a driver still perfecting his drive.
Looking at the races without Verstappen you will see a very interesting season with cars closely following and different podiums and different teams. The fastest driver in a very fast car.
So it definitly the main discriminator here: Verstappen.
Gimi
22nd April 2024, 17:02
You’re absolutely right, the big difference between the “Max Era” and the Mercedes years were, 1) Rosberg wasn’t all that great but he had the obsession to push himself to fight Hamilton even if he didn’t have the speed he was there to take any chances Lewis left 2) very controversial take on this site, Hamilton wasn’t as consistent as Max is now, if both can perform to 100% of the car, Hamilton can only be that for around half a season, Max can be 100% almost the entire season.
In the 2014-2016, 51 of 59 races were all won by Mercedes, 86% and they took 93% of poles, 31 race wins were from Hamilton.
In 2017-2020, Mercedes got weaker only winning 51 of 79 races, 64% and 53 poles, 67%, Hamilton had 42 wins, 82% of them, if a Mercedes looked like a winner you knew it was Lewis.
Overall from 2014 to 2020, Hamilton always got around 10 wins, it his yearly win rate all those years, be it teammate competition or another team he always got his 10 win share, I have always thought of Mercedes not being any weaker in the Vettel challenger years, it just they lost a WDC level driver for Bottas and the wins went down accordingly, 2014-2016 whenever Hamilton was not on it, Rosberg was usually there to take it, Bottas was not there to take it most of the time and so Vettel or the Red Bull guys got some wins here and there.
Hamilton/Bottas is very similar to Verstappen/Perez the difference is Max 99% on it and so Sergio has even less opportunities than Bottas since Max is taking all posssible wins and poles.
miciek (@micio)
22nd April 2024, 18:44
Not fair. Lewis had Rosberg and then Mercedes was challenged by Ferrari in the beginning of 2017-2019 seasons.
Max has never been challenged because no team can fight for wins even at the beginning of a season.
And he doesn’t have a team mate that is at least on the same level as Rosberg.
Forza@Monza
22nd April 2024, 9:46
True. At the same time WEC manages to keep me at the edge of a seat for hours. How come that F1, which is supposed to be the pinnacle of motorsport, fails to be interesting for 1.5h?
Mayrton
22nd April 2024, 12:44
Only if you are mostly (/just) interested in who wins. I thought that after 4 year Vettel and 8 years Mercedes most avid fans would have shaken that element off. I haven’t tuned in for 15 years to see who wins as that has been blatantly clear over that period. Lots going on behind the predictable race winners though.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
22nd April 2024, 13:31
The winner hasn’t always been clear in that era, in 2014, 2015 and 2016 it could be hamilton or rosberg + some exceptions where ferrari and red bull were more competitive, in 2017 and 2018 it could be any from ferrari, merc and red bull, in 2019, although it was a dominant season, it could be anyone from the 3 teams again, except verstappen’s team mates, in 2020 it could be merc or verstappen (not counting one offs obviously), in 2021 it could be hamilton or verstappen, in 2022 it could be ferrari or red bull and now it can basically only be verstappen, also last year.
Craig
22nd April 2024, 13:26
I’d say this era of dominance is somewhat worse then previous due not only to the certain budget cap breaking but also that everyone is heavily restricted in what they can do because of said budget cap. Previously teams could do what they had to to find a way to catch up in development while the dominant team worked to maintain their advantage, but that is now gone with said advantage now cemented in and seemingly only snowballing into a bigger and bigger advantage.
Retep
22nd April 2024, 15:28
That’s only partially true. Until 2017 F1 had an engine token system which limited the amount of engine development manufacturers could do. For engine manufacturers that didn’t got it right in 2014 the token system made it very difficult to catch up.
Craig
22nd April 2024, 15:57
I’m talking about developing the car itself rather then the engines.
AlanD
22nd April 2024, 23:34
The engine is part of the car as far as I am concerned.
Archibald Bumfluff
22nd April 2024, 9:12
Is F1 stuck in a time warp or something?
It seems that every weekend we seem to be getting pretty much the same results.
miciek (@micio)
22nd April 2024, 9:40
It’s because Red Bull is a rocket and Perez is a mediocre driver.
MichaelN
22nd April 2024, 11:52
And the other teams are wasting their time and money. One or two exceptions aside, they are irrelevant.
As we saw in Melbourne, the second Red Bull is under some pressure they start to make mistakes and finish 5th and not at all.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
22nd April 2024, 13:33
Yes, and I really would’ve liked to see verstappen’s result without the technical problem, I think it could be any place on the podium.
erik
22nd April 2024, 15:09
You see, you just cannot help yourself, obsessed with Verstappen. Trying to undermine his success at every opportunity. As expected from the Hamiltoncult.
Retep
22nd April 2024, 15:38
I fairness we have seen the same from the Verstappencult when Hamilton was dominant, the same claims (it is just the car and his teammate is worthless) just different names.
The reality of F1 is that the best drivers eventually end up in the best cars, and that no driver will win the WDC with an uncompetitive car.
S
22nd April 2024, 10:09
I believe Einstein produced a quote about this exact pattern…
F1 does the same thing over and over again – why would the results be any different?
GmP (@gmp)
23rd April 2024, 6:34
It is because the number one driver at this moment is a faultless perfectionist, in the best car on the grid. Very exiting to watch how he maintains that now for more then two years.
miciek (@micio)
23rd April 2024, 7:16
It would be exciting if he managed to do that while under any pressure.
We saw what happens when there is a slight pressure in the Sprint Quali.
Osnola
23rd April 2024, 8:59
In the rain every driver made mistakes, even the pole time was unsure for a moment as a result of norris leaving the track the lap before.
Verstappen was unable to generate heat with his dry weather setting.
Verstappen under pressure often delivers exeptional results. Remember the out of this world pole lap in Monaco as an example. Not like lewis who starts moaning and making mistakes. Of course its always his setup then (by his own choice btw)
Mr B
23rd April 2024, 12:44
Max performed under immense pressure in the 2021 season.
He did what he needed to do to dethrone Hamilton over the course of the season.
Many of his victories were through tiny margins that require supreme execution from both him and the team.
Where his car was unable to compete for victory he brought home the max points possible.
Today he is a better, more complete and all round competitor than in 2021.
I understand your point that if put under sufficient pressure by a better team mate he might not make it look so easy – I get that.
However, I think it is fair to say that Verstappen is a very special talent.
I urge you to watch him at events away from the circuit, he reminds me very much of Schumacher at times.
Dave The Drummer (@davethedrummer)
22nd April 2024, 9:12
That Alonso sequence from the last corner with the wobble and then the manic overtaking was the highlight of the race for me. Superb stuff.
miciek (@micio)
22nd April 2024, 9:42
Definitely. The whole weekend was Alonso’s show. Put this guy in the second Red Bull and we have a great season ahead.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
22nd April 2024, 13:34
I think there’s even an appropriate word: alonshow, saw it before!
GmP (@gmp)
23rd April 2024, 6:36
Alonso dropped from 3rd to last in the sprint, and from 3rd to 7th in the race. But yeah, it was a whole weekend Alonso show.
miciek (@micio)
23rd April 2024, 7:18
He is driving a very bad car :D. Note that Perez and Stroll are on the similar level so you can see what’s the car difference there.
Osnola
23rd April 2024, 9:04
Comparing a well known race winner on merrit with stroll must be a way to prove your point i guess.
While perez is not on the list of absolute top drivers, he can be on a good day.
Stroll on the other hand is on sargant level in a much faster car.
So try again with some arguments.
Dan Rooke (@geekzilla9000)
22nd April 2024, 10:36
i agree. If the events in the race were to be measured by my audible reaction – this definitely got the biggest “OOF!” from me! Alonso has been a real highlight since his return, I’d love to see him in that Red Bull. That would really shake things up for next year!
Señor Sjon
22nd April 2024, 13:08
He just signed a 2 year extension with AM.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
22nd April 2024, 13:34
A very bad decision for the sport, but maybe he knew red bull wouldn’t drop perez as long as he does the number 2 job.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
22nd April 2024, 11:52
Little is being said about race control, I’m surprised to see. They took way too long to call a VSC for Bottas (he was standing there with drivers going by only with yellow flags), and then they took way too long to resume racing once the SC was deployed. Then again after the Lance Stroll/Magnussen shenanigans, it took way too long to clean debris. This is a big track, surely the marshalls had time to spare to jump on track and sweep it.
Or maybe it was just lack of practice
MichaelN
22nd April 2024, 11:56
They should never go from VSC into SC. It’s very unfair on the teams who react appropriately the VSC.
Also, Bottas is overdue a warning on where he parks his cars. This isn’t the first time his antics have required lengthy interventions.
macaque (@macaque)
22nd April 2024, 13:25
Watching his onboard replay, it seems he could have gone slightly to the right instead, but chose not to, so he wouldn’t end up in the gravel. Seeing so many marshals trying to move the car later (and failing), I suppose putting it in the gravel would have made things worse, or more likely for the SC to be deployed from the beginning (so… better?).
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
22nd April 2024, 13:36
While I agree on the unfairness, I think there’s a reason: if you deploy a SC immediately on a given incident, some cars will still be going pretty fast until they reach the SC, whereas when a VSC is deployed speed is immediately cut to a certain % for everyone, then they can deploy the SC, though I was still surprised by the very long time that passed between virtual and full SC, that seemed unnecessary.
Simon (@simon999)
22nd April 2024, 15:28
Try and write the equivalent of “they should never” into the rules. I understand what you mean by it, but it’s never that straight-forward in reality. You’d likely have to get rid of the VSC to avoid the issue completely.
There are a number of scenarios in which something that looks like it can be resolved with a VSC initially, ultimately can’t be. Whilst I’m sure they could tighten up on how they make the decisions to minimise the chance of that happening, they also need to be able to react to changing circumstances and information in real-time. Sometimes that means “upgrading” from one safety level (yellows, VSC, safety car, red flag etc) to another.
osnola
22nd April 2024, 15:47
Not sure if Bottas really had any choice in this. The engine stopped and the gearbox stuck in 2.
The car was unmovable and he was not able to find a spot in he short driving line he had.
It was the race director who failed here.
Simon (@simon999)
22nd April 2024, 15:23
For the first time in a long while, I just watched the Youtube highlights from Sky. This was partly due to not being around to watch sprint race or qualifying on Saturday, but also partly due to the inevitability of Sunday’s result.
There are some decent battles that go on during any given race throughout the field, but the near-certainty of the winner just makes it feel dull and uninspiring. Red Bull has created a perfect storm around Max that means on most weekends he has no competition whatsoever, especially from his team mate. In previous eras, even in periods of great domination, there were always quite a few races where the winner might come from either of the dominant cars or a rival suited to that track.
I do wonder how Max really feels about it all. The guy loves to race, real or virtual, and surely he can’t be happy with needing to do little more than show up to win week after week? He is undoubtedly one of the best of all time, but the complete lack of competition takes the sheen off it slightly, particularly when compared to 2021 (which was epic).
Craig
22nd April 2024, 16:00
I don’t think Vestappen cares, he thinks he’s perfect and untouchable so I can imagine when things fully fall apart (as they always inevitably do) he’ll fall apart with no idea how to handle it and shatter that “best of all time” illusion that’s been spun up around him (don’t get me wrong I think he’s good but the idea he’s the best ever is just nonsense).
baasbas
22nd April 2024, 20:00
@Craig
But you just happen to know he thinks he is perfect and untouchable.. okay
Gimi
22nd April 2024, 21:58
You can easily apply it to Hamilton, remember stuff like “blessed”, “still I rise”, “if you think last year was me at my best…”, and I think Verstappen pr team spams a lot less social media “I’m the best” than Hamilton’s pr team of the late 10’s era.
Max already started as a underdog, you guys talk about him like he made his debut in a 2023 Red Bull rocket ship, Max was one of the few guys bringing the fight to Mercedes since his Red Bull debut in 2016, I think he would take a bad car just fine, just with a lot more f words on the radio.
GmP (@gmp)
23rd April 2024, 6:48
I don’t get you wrong, you are wrong. He is at this moment the absolute best, and he will not fall apart if at a certain moment someone else will surpass him. You have any evidence for your statement that he will? He is always looking to better himself and his team, to get the best results possible. If that comes to an end, and you are right that it will someday, he will conclude that he can’t improve anymore and switch out to something else. I don’t see him continuing like Lewis or Vettel or Alonso. Max enjoyed the ride to the top, now he enjoys trying to stay there, still trying to improve his craft. When progress stops he will be happy with what he achieved, leave F1 and go do something else where he can grow again.
miciek (@micio)
23rd April 2024, 7:22
It’s inevitable. To be on your best you need to practice. Max hasn’t been practicing real racing for two years. He will need some time adjusting to a worse car when he gets one.
baasbas
23rd April 2024, 7:49
@micio
This is a weird one because on the one hand there is a truth in what you’re saying. On the track he is currently not being challenged enough. But on the other hand, I’m also fascinated by his unrelenting drive (no pun intended). With what he is doing in the best car of the field, he could relax all he wants. But he doesn’t. Somehow he finds the motivation to be on a sim non-stop, even before and after actual Grands Prix for crying out loud. The guy is a machine. So while what you’re saying is realistic, I’m actually more inclined to think @gmp’s scenario is more likely.
Time will tell..
Osnola
23rd April 2024, 9:07
I guess you are projecting the hamilton era domination years on max.
Lewis often slipped up when confronted with a fight he did not expected. Max still perfecting his laps on front.
Gimi
22nd April 2024, 16:51
Domination is always good as long as I like the dominating driver.
Seriously just be honest about it, I enjoy Max crushing everyone more than the Hamilton years, British fans would probably prefer the latter and would be enjoying Hamilton in a Red Bull crushing everyone and being a 11 time WDC more than anyone else as well, just like Germans enjoyed the Schumacher days or Brazilians loved the Senna years and all proclaim their own driver as the greatest and so on, it’s just a part of any sport.
You eventually learn to enjoy more than just who wins, when I was young I “hated” Schumacher in the Ferrari days, he was always on it, there were questionable team orders, his teammates were always slower, “Ferrari International Assistance”, he had various dirty moves, I was a fan of whoever fought Schumacher, Hill, Jacques, Hakkinen, DC, Kimi and Alonso, I’m older now and I look at those years with another perspective, I still don’t like blatant team orders like Barrichello got sometimes but I enjoy Schumi being so good and winning the most he possibly could, which is pretty much what every racing driver would dream of, even amateur ones like me.
I’ll take a guess and I bet most of the site here don’t work for a current F1 team, or for Liberty media or is a family member of any of the current drivers, so no reason to take it so seriously, just sit back and enjoy Max driving on a “Max” level race after race and if you can’t, there are other racing series and other sports to watch.
miciek (@micio)
23rd April 2024, 7:23
He isn’t driving on a Max level because he is not racing anyone.
Osnola
23rd April 2024, 9:10
This is really an absurd statement. But if this is your reality who am i to burst your bubble ;)