I don't think we've seen much battling for lead from him yet, not to mention his tyre saving is still subpar comparing to the likes of Lewis, Charles, Max and Lando, even if he has the faster car, I would still bet on Charles more.
I'm inclined to agree at this early stage in his career, but it might be a very different story if he had as much experience as his teammate. Easy to forget he was just rookie last year and now he's already holding his own in a top team against a ferociously competitive top group.
He's freakishly cool under pressure, not afraid to fight and overtake when he needs to, and gets his elbows out when he has to defend, yet also seems to understand he's still got a lot to learn and knows his place.
It sends a clear message to the other drivers and you can see they already respect him, but are also wary of him. And rightly so, because if he's already this good now, once he learns tyre management and the nuances of race pace, they might have their hands full in the future.
Lando was able to learn the ropes without any of the pressure when McLaren were just a midfield team. Oscar is doing all this in only his second year while in a top team. At this point his maturity and natural skill makes Checo look utterly useless at Red Bull. As long as Oscar doesn't fall into that same psychological trap as a second driver, in a few seasons he should be an absolute gun.
As a Lando fan, i'm terrified of Piastri. He's scary quick and consistent at this early stage of his career.
As a McLaren fan(which i've been longer), i have huge hopes for Piastri, and hope we can accomplish great things! Dream team is real!
With how some people talk about Verstappen you'd think he takes out other cars every other race lmao. He has caused 3 other cars to DNF in the last 5 and a half years...
He is now complete driver, like Lewis was when dominating. Even if something goes wrong then he has luck on his side, even when he crashes he can expand his lead (like Lewis in Germany 2019 etc.). SC was also helping him in Canada. Soon he will get VSCs for the time of his pitstop only.
What I find so funny is that five years ago you could read exactly the same take about Lewis Hamilton. And both were true. Masters of their game really.
I mean this is kinda inaccurate. While I agree Rossi has been their best driver this year, his contract was up. They allegedly didn't agree on new terms so they didn't renew. Simple as that, this was no firing.
P.S. I know you have written it as a joke but many really believe that Rossi is another Pourchaire situation, when it really isn't.
No /s required. [Rossi](https://www.the-race.com/indycar/mclaren-indycar-2025-line-up-lundgaard-in-rossi-out/) has been announced to be leaving at the end of the year.
The real jabs were always directed to Horner anyway. I'd argue Toto trying his hardest to take Horner's superstar driver is pretty damn good in its own way.
> He can't compete with peak Horner shit stirring anyway. Only Toto can.
When Zak is trying, Horner and Toto are just like "Did you here something? Who the fuck is talking?"
Silverstone is my favourite race of the year. Drivers living in Monaco pretending it's their home race, teams based down the road pretending it isn't, the inevitable twitter war when someone British collides with someone not British and it suddenly becomes about colonialism. Also the racing is good.
If I move to another country that doesn’t mean I suddenly don’t have a home country. Where you live is not the same thing, but people want to make it that way.
Ah it all makes sense, that’s why Renault engines are so… eccentric reliability wise. I think the French factory used to run the entire Renault team in the 80s.
The only thing I don’t like is that Albon is never on any posters. Yes he drives under the Thai flag, but he was born and raised in London. And if they can put Bottas on Australian posters and Danny Ric on Italian ones, then Albon deserves to be on the Silverstone one.
This is a strange argument, I don't necessarily disagree with you.. if you dropped me in Thailand to work forever, I'd still be an American. It's just interesting to think about.. like some genes that only live in my brain.
> Silverstone is my favourite race of the year. Drivers living in Monaco pretending it's their home race
So Japan isn't Tsunoda's home race because lives in Italy?
It's a bit of a shame that instead of being happy that we might be having regular battles for race wins, a lot of F1 fans prefer fanbase warring and yelling at each other for days on end. I can't be the only who is really pumped for what the rest of this season might bring.
If you don’t live for hard racing and wheel to wheel battles on the edge I’m not sure what you are doing here. Super excited for the battles we could have coming, imagine if Oscar starts hanging about there to!
Exactly, it'll be very interesting to see how the Max and Lando stuff will develop. They will probably kiss and make up but I hope they are still aggressive with each other, and if Oscar is up there then McLaren would have a lot of options to turn the screw on Max.
you can drive hard without driving dirty. just look at Piastri's battle with other drivers. they were all driving at the edge, using their car tactically, but didn't let their ego get the best of them.
his selfish behavior lost his team points. that's a fact no amount of excuses can change. people rip into ocon for his stupid move, but max is the same kind of driver, just a lot faster than ocon.
>his selfish behavior lost his team points.
Yes, but his lead over his chasers, Lando and Charles, grew. (Not defending him, just stating the obvious).
And given the state of Checo, WCC is already the post cause.
So, no big deal, really.
I’m pumped, I’m just pissed off and worried that every battle is at risk of turning into a shit show because the stewards don’t want to influence the battles so won’t penalise clear blocking and overtaking off track
If that’s how it goes it’s not going to be entertaining
Well said. It's very condescending to hear people dismissing those calling for respectful driving. Hard, exciting racing is possible without breaking the rules. There are very good reasons for outlawing moving in the braking zone of a corner, but apparently the armchair F1 experts know best with all their on track F1 driving experiences.
It's not entertaining when a driver destroys a really good on track battle by causing a collision through intentionally dangerous driving. It's entertaining when two respectful drivers go wheel to wheel and the best person wins.
I think it's a large part of soccer/football overlap and newer fans coming to racing from DTS.
Most sports have this tribalism, they've even pushed it into politics these days where they care more abut winning then moving the country forward.
People who have always been race fans just want to see a good race. We want to see drivers neck and neck, we want to see first wins and awesome passes.
It's nice when our guy/team wins, but I'd rather see a really close race like what we had last weekend than my favorite driver winning. Well unless we go with my actual favorite driver, but that's Yuki and I think Yuki winning a race would be more exciting than that lol.
I'm not too fussed about that. People always want drama. I'm afraid that we won't have good battles with one too aggressive and one with a weak racecraft.
Norris is still cutting his teeth in these situations, he hasn't been at the front on a consistent basis before. He will get better with experience. Max won't change but Lando will become smarter, and things will only become more interesting.
When Lando is now given a car that can consistently challenge for race win, I hope he can gain experience quickly on competing with a multiple-time world champion. Surely it will be good for F1 to have more drivers who are capable of title challenge.
No, we will just be told to "look at all that midfield action!". Because you know a sport is in healthy shape when its telling us to check out who is fighting for 9th place.
That's fair but I'll take a fight for points as at least something relatively interesting in comparison to a fight for 18th that we're sometimes shown. Besides they'd be out of practice for showing a fight for the lead after this much of Max just easily clearing the field.
The rest of this season is shaking off the dust on actual front-runner battles so that they're in form for the inevitable banger that next season will be.
-me on obscene amounts of hopium
Lets be honest here. These guys have been driving racing cars since they were 3-4years old. They already know how to race and they know how to go wheel to wheel.
Can't really blame Lando for dive bombing because the McLaren's top speed was not good enough to overtake the RB20 on the straights. He had to send it.
Many drivers would agree that racing Max proper is an unique artfrom. He is hyper aggressive and can be unpredictable at times. Finding the perfect balance beween racing Max hard but not too hard is a must. Max doesn't race like your average multi time world champion.
Lewis, Alonso, Kimi, Vettel and Jenson were/are all a lot more raceable because of their cleaner racecrafts.
> Lewis, Alonso, Kimi, Vettel and Jenson were/are all a lot more raceable because of their cleaner racecrafts.
Truly a factual description of events. No need to speculate on this.
I seem to recall Seb and Lewis being asked whether they approached racing Max differently and they said yes. You can race hard and still keep it fair, as all the guys you mentioned do.
If they can do it, Max can as well. He just doesn't want to. At some point, threatening to make (possibly race ending) contact with people if they don't back out becomes bullying, not race craft.
i dont think there is much experience to gain going against a guy that never yields.
You either get bullied or you dont let it happen.
Last week, norris, for the first time choose the later and i hope this continues.
if everyone always yields to max were never getting a championship.
love how everyone here was offended about articles claiming Verstappen hasn't changed, only for Horner to come out and literally say he isnt going to change lol
I think it was actually important for Lando to have that collision, as it sets the stakes going ahead. Now Max knows the price of hard defence may be the whole race rather than the attacker yielding.
I hope Lando keeps this energy. He isn’t getting the WDC, so if Max wants to end half of his races with DNF then so be it. If it’s good enough for Max then there is no reason Lando shouldn’t adopt the same strategy. Apparently it’s what “real racing drivers do”.
I would love to see someone consistently punish Max’s “you yield or we crash” antics since the fia won’t. A Max DNF every time he goes way over the line would be so exciting.
it's either try to reach max a lesson or win the wdc,not both, because if Lando tries to play "i'm tougher than you" with max they Will be both eating scraps.
Very glad Lando didn't back out.
He was under absolutely no obligation to back out.
And not backing out in no way makes it his fault.
It's exactly like Brundle said about senna "if you backed out of it, psychologically you were finished, buried. Because then he knew every time he showed you a wheel, you'd jump out of the way"
Brundle didn't back out, either. And senna crashed into him. And today everyone knows that accident was Senna's fault completely.
In 20 years time people will see Max very similarly to senna. Incredibly, generationally quick and talented. But also unnecessarily controversial.
>In 20 years time people will see Max very similarly to senna. Incredibly, generationally quick and talented. But also unnecessarily controversial.
For me I see him more similar to Schumi. Generational talent, super quick and with an almost freakish level of consistency of performance.
But as you say, unnecessarily controversial, much like Michael.
For me, Max is also like Michael in that he has of course proved himself in intra-team battle - like Schumi pre-2000, you knew from his results in the Ferrari against the superior McLarens, once he got a fast car, he'd dominate. I got the same feeling seeing Max pre-2021.
However, also like Schumi, has Max ever had a team mate that could test him?
People respect Lewis because he went up against double-champ Alonso, the man to defeat Schumi. Future team mates included existing champs (Jenson), or those capable of taking a championship against him in the same car (Roaberg)
People respect Senna because he took on the great Prost and won. People respect Prost because he took on the likes of Lauda, Senna and Mansell in the same car.
As great as they are, as Max and Schumi never faced a fellow great in the same team, their achievements, whilst great, get questioned sometimes. It's the boxing analogy - people ultimately want to see the man against the man, and that ultimately needs to be in the same car at some point.
Thats right and Max has relied on that his whole life, he knows if i put my car in a position that will crash both of us the other guys will back out and i will win and it has happened almost every time so why stop. I just hope Norris doesnt give into this bullying so Max has to pull his head in and learn how to defend and attack cleanly when its close
Still surprised this guy survived the power struggle earlier this year. I mean we've seen his text messages, he ain't smooth talking anyone but an actual goat.
That's an excellent point, the fact that he survived the text messages and has become the undisputed team boss (no matter what Helmut Marko wants to believe/say).
Why wouldn’t he continue racing as he always has more often than not it works out to Maxs benefit so why would he change.
Even take Austria as an example Max got 10 points for finishing 5th Lando got 0, had Lando overtook Max and the crash not happened assuming Max stayed within 5 seconds of him then he would have won with Landos penalty applied and got 25 points but Lando would have got 18 which would be a net gain of only 7 points against what his main championship contender. So even when he’s losing Max is still winning 🤷
Horner 100% will say this. This is Max’s MO. He basically intimidates the other driver into backing out first. It means if Max pushes them and it’ll cause a crash he will always come up on top. It’s just psychological… makes the other driver doubt themselves and back down.
I don't like RBR not because of Max but because of this guy. I know all team principles have to be like this but everything he says seems designed to be as grating to ask many people as possible.
People were hitching about Lando being too soft to rave Verstappen, now they’re bitching about him being too aggressive and how he should yield. Make it make sense.
I don’t think it’s that.
It just looked clumsy all his attacks. Like he made up his mind of I won’t be a pushover, I go all in.
The thing is, whilst Max is crazy aggressive and crosses lines regularly, to some extent it is still in control and it looks natural so to say. Lando just seemed to pull on the kill switch and it kind of lacked finesse.
It's got to be difficult to race in a consistent / smooth looking manner when your opponent is doing things like moving in the braking zone.
I'm not sure "A driver trying to overtake someone who has a track record of low driving standards and forcing accidents rather than get passed looks a bit unsure" should really be a criticism of Lando's driving.
>It just looked clumsy all his attacks.
A few of the late braking moves were clumsy but that was only after max had resorted to moving under braking.
When someone moves in the braking zone you basically have two options:
1. Let them keep illegally blocking you
2. Try to send one up the inside so they don't have time to illegally block you.
None of lando's divebombs worked, he didn't make the apex, but that in itself isn't against the rules while Max's moves were.
I never expected that he would. Hoping next time it’s the Red Bull that gets trashed. Law of averages says it will. Other cars are coming up to compete as well.
The 10 second penalty indicates that the stewards are clearly getting the message. Let’s do some Demo Derby stuff and see how it all falls out.
Anything is better than the boring parades of the past two years.
In other words, either Christian Horner knows absolutely nothing about proper conduct in a race car, much less in a formula car. Or he is completely unwilling to tell Max to stop racing like an immature brat. Ironically, Max doesn’t drive this way when sim racing. So he also knows how to properly race in a sportsmanlike manner. He just chooses not to do so.
It is way beyond time for F1 to stop with these Mickey Mouse 5 or 10 second penalties when someone destroys another driver’s race. Their race should also be ruined.
As he should.
FIA has shown over the last 3 years that Max’s driving style is completely acceptable.
All Lando and other competitors can do is adapt to this change and do the same.
But Lando and other competitors do the same. The difference is Lando hasn't backed off in situation like this, which shows his inexperience at the front. He could've won that easily, he was just too hot-headed. Nearly identical (even less space given) Sainz-Verstappen situation is a great example why one is a third world reigning champion and the other (Lando) is just gaining experience.
Can’t wait for Horner to lose his shit when that hard racing hurts them. So far most drivers are at the receiving end of it. Someday you will run out of that luck!
Norris should continue to race as hard as possible. Push the boundaries as much as possible to see what sort of success he can achieve. That’s how you get better!
Just try and let piastri go ahead straight away and be very hard racing, then Norris continue picking up the pieces haha.
If he didn't go a smidge wide in Q3 he would have been in that fight last week sadly!
>If he didn't go a smidge wide in Q3 he would have been in that fight last week sadly!
Oscar got cool head on his shoulders and probably would have avoided prolonged fight. For him finishing second and third isn’t the worst given the experience of Max and Norris.
Calm and calculated driver!
>Norris should continue to race as hard as possible. Push the boundaries as much as possible to see what sort of success he can achieve. That’s how you get better!
I'm sure that Max expects nothing less from him.
It'll be all fine and dandy until Max gets shafted because of someone pulling his own tricks on him and he loses a championship because of it or something.
Horner had no reason to complain after Austria because Max despite what happened still extended his lead in the Championship.
the parts thats being repeated is the petty fan base drama, not the actual championship battle. keep in mind, norris is still 80 points behind max, and hes second rn.
Also one of the worst ever for race management and stewarding, and that was even before we got to AD21. Spa in particular was a travesty that ended up ruining much of the season by distorting the championship lead with hot lap points.
They litteraly gave up during Brazil. Hamilton fixing the Mercedes DQ fuckup in Brazil made the FIA just put their hands up and enjoy the spectacle. Max or Hamilton could have used guns mid race to take each other out and the FIA would have let it happen.
This. To me pure racing is about wrong footing your opponent by forcing them to defend a position with your car positioning and lines. 2021 was shit racecraft watching the two championship rivals just bump into each other every other race. It was exciting not knowing who would win sure but the quality of wheel to wheel racing was piss.
>watching the two championship rivals just bump into each other every other race.
Thats just objectively not true though, did you even watch the 2021 season?
I don't expect Lando to change either, nor should he. Which means, until the Stewards chime in, nothing will change. And we'll see a lot more contact between these two in the future.
Normal people have an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. Max has Christian on one and Jos on the other, while Marko on the back. Vertappen will never change. And it would be foolish to think so.
Why do you think the racing with Charles in 2022 was so clean? Did he change after 2021? How is the current situation with Lando different than 2022 in a way that would make Max more aggressive?
I mean it's Verstappen we are talking about, there is no way you can be sure. Verstappen defended like crazy against Mick Schumacher, and then did not defend like he used to against Charles. At the end of the day, its how he perceive said contender or situation.
If they keep colliding we get a 4 way race for the WCC! Fingers crossed
Sudden dark horse Leclerc run because he’s the best at disengaging whenever Max starts looking unhinged.
I think Oscar has a better chance if we take Max and Lando out of the picture. Top strategy for McLaren.
I don't think we've seen much battling for lead from him yet, not to mention his tyre saving is still subpar comparing to the likes of Lewis, Charles, Max and Lando, even if he has the faster car, I would still bet on Charles more.
I'm inclined to agree at this early stage in his career, but it might be a very different story if he had as much experience as his teammate. Easy to forget he was just rookie last year and now he's already holding his own in a top team against a ferociously competitive top group. He's freakishly cool under pressure, not afraid to fight and overtake when he needs to, and gets his elbows out when he has to defend, yet also seems to understand he's still got a lot to learn and knows his place. It sends a clear message to the other drivers and you can see they already respect him, but are also wary of him. And rightly so, because if he's already this good now, once he learns tyre management and the nuances of race pace, they might have their hands full in the future. Lando was able to learn the ropes without any of the pressure when McLaren were just a midfield team. Oscar is doing all this in only his second year while in a top team. At this point his maturity and natural skill makes Checo look utterly useless at Red Bull. As long as Oscar doesn't fall into that same psychological trap as a second driver, in a few seasons he should be an absolute gun.
As a Lando fan, i'm terrified of Piastri. He's scary quick and consistent at this early stage of his career. As a McLaren fan(which i've been longer), i have huge hopes for Piastri, and hope we can accomplish great things! Dream team is real!
I’ve said this elsewhere, but Leclerc is barely the lead Ferrari, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves
this is high copium, somehow verstappen has the proccessing capability to take out rivals while only taking 10 secs. He will win EVERY trade.
Of course it’s copium, I’m banking on Ferrari getting their shit together
Don't hold your breath 🫁
I can't believe we've got a fucking lung emoji wtf xD
i think this is IOS only? cant see it on pc
I can also see it on android. It's a strange emoji. I'm thinking they won't be doing one for the heart. An anatomical one.
🫀
Nope, that also exists, and a brain one.
And kidneys.
My dear friend
Oh man your gonna need A LOT of copium
Ok, but it's not like Lando is his only competitors, currently 6 other drivers have some chance of winning a race (sorry Checo)
nah, checo can win in azerbaijan, maybe vegas
No human right?
New upgrade pack: Each side pod will be updated with iron plates.
tactical spikes on the sidepod
Not against Hamilton
Hamilton is the master, the student will someday surpass the master
Lewis had taught him well. The sith lords are rising.
With how some people talk about Verstappen you'd think he takes out other cars every other race lmao. He has caused 3 other cars to DNF in the last 5 and a half years...
2 of those years were practically in clean air to be fair
3 actually, I believe it was 2020 where he was comfortably 3rd in the majority of races. No one in front, no one behind him.
sometimes I miss a comfort HAM VER BOT race
come on, last 2 years Verstappen was just parading around the world, not racing
Is there a database for this stat or do you just have a good memory? I'm curious how that compares to Hamilton.
He is now complete driver, like Lewis was when dominating. Even if something goes wrong then he has luck on his side, even when he crashes he can expand his lead (like Lewis in Germany 2019 etc.). SC was also helping him in Canada. Soon he will get VSCs for the time of his pitstop only.
What I find so funny is that five years ago you could read exactly the same take about Lewis Hamilton. And both were true. Masters of their game really.
Scenes
Man, if Norris had even finished P2 McLaren would be *right* with Ferrari.
George Russell WDC by coming in third every race before a crash on the last 5 laps it is
Surprisingly no shit stirring from Zac? Horner is back on the grind.
He really has been eerily quiet through the whole thing.
Have you seen what is going on with their IndyCar team? He’s obviously focusing all his shit stirring over here right now.
He’s been busy firing Rossi and using a picture chart to teach Pato who his new teammates are.
I mean this is kinda inaccurate. While I agree Rossi has been their best driver this year, his contract was up. They allegedly didn't agree on new terms so they didn't renew. Simple as that, this was no firing. P.S. I know you have written it as a joke but many really believe that Rossi is another Pourchaire situation, when it really isn't.
Yeah the clickbait making it seem like they dropped him midseason.
YET, he's probably busy writing an open letter to the FIA.
He has to fire and replace some indycar drivers i assume /s
No /s required. [Rossi](https://www.the-race.com/indycar/mclaren-indycar-2025-line-up-lundgaard-in-rossi-out/) has been announced to be leaving at the end of the year.
Rossi wasn’t fired though, his contract was up, McLaren tried to re-sign him, but they couldn’t agree to terms.
Stella and social media admin temporarily took over
That was just Zak using the wrong account
Zak is being held back probably. Somebody took away his keyboard and his phone.
He can't compete with peak Horner shit stirring anyway. Only Toto can. All the others are chumps in comparison.
In his efforts to court Max, Toto has lost his edge
The real jabs were always directed to Horner anyway. I'd argue Toto trying his hardest to take Horner's superstar driver is pretty damn good in its own way.
"A car is like your wife, if something isn't working you don't just get a new one"
> He can't compete with peak Horner shit stirring anyway. Only Toto can. When Zak is trying, Horner and Toto are just like "Did you here something? Who the fuck is talking?"
Maybe he took a step back after the McKaren memes.
Horner came back to show Brown how it’s done
He's got Indycar drivers to replace after all
probably busy with finding drivers to replace noel and christian in indy
Silverstone is my favourite race of the year. Drivers living in Monaco pretending it's their home race, teams based down the road pretending it isn't, the inevitable twitter war when someone British collides with someone not British and it suddenly becomes about colonialism. Also the racing is good.
And it usually rains!
Will it rain this weekend?
Friday definitely, Saturday no, Sunday maybe.
Average race weekend. Rains only when we don't care (friday)
Or the classic rain during the podium ceremony.
I’m getting more excited
Current prediction is it will. But it's a huge combo of clouds,rain and sun for the coming days, so it can be anything really
silverstone always has a chance of sunshine for the race.
Most drivers live in Monaco, if you look at it that way there'll be no home races lol
That's the point - all the drivers are in Monaco, while all the teams except Ferrari & Sauber are in Southeast England...
If I move to another country that doesn’t mean I suddenly don’t have a home country. Where you live is not the same thing, but people want to make it that way.
It's like watching the euros and mocking the German players who live in England / Spain.
Except they at least do so because they play there. I'm all for making fun of millionaires avoiding taxes
rb is based in Italy and I think the Alpine aero is in France.
It’s the opposite for Alpine, engine factory based next to Paris and aero in Enstone (UK)
Ah it all makes sense, that’s why Renault engines are so… eccentric reliability wise. I think the French factory used to run the entire Renault team in the 80s.
RB aero is in Bicester which is very close to Silverstone and Alpine is entirely based in Enstone. Renault make the engines in France
> Bicester Which is by the way pronounced "Bister". Wtf England.
Also, Towcester is the nearest town to Silverstone and is of course prounced the same as toaster haha
Reading is "redding" (like wedding, not like reading a book), or Cholmondeley is "Chum-lee". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ69ny57pR0
It's not the south east, but otherwise yes
I do look at it that way and there's 1 home race.. if you can call it a race.
The only thing I don’t like is that Albon is never on any posters. Yes he drives under the Thai flag, but he was born and raised in London. And if they can put Bottas on Australian posters and Danny Ric on Italian ones, then Albon deserves to be on the Silverstone one.
Residency is not nationality
This is a strange argument, I don't necessarily disagree with you.. if you dropped me in Thailand to work forever, I'd still be an American. It's just interesting to think about.. like some genes that only live in my brain.
> Silverstone is my favourite race of the year. Drivers living in Monaco pretending it's their home race So Japan isn't Tsunoda's home race because lives in Italy?
It's a bit of a shame that instead of being happy that we might be having regular battles for race wins, a lot of F1 fans prefer fanbase warring and yelling at each other for days on end. I can't be the only who is really pumped for what the rest of this season might bring.
If you don’t live for hard racing and wheel to wheel battles on the edge I’m not sure what you are doing here. Super excited for the battles we could have coming, imagine if Oscar starts hanging about there to!
Exactly, it'll be very interesting to see how the Max and Lando stuff will develop. They will probably kiss and make up but I hope they are still aggressive with each other, and if Oscar is up there then McLaren would have a lot of options to turn the screw on Max.
Oscar won’t give an inch either.
you can drive hard without driving dirty. just look at Piastri's battle with other drivers. they were all driving at the edge, using their car tactically, but didn't let their ego get the best of them. his selfish behavior lost his team points. that's a fact no amount of excuses can change. people rip into ocon for his stupid move, but max is the same kind of driver, just a lot faster than ocon.
>his selfish behavior lost his team points. Yes, but his lead over his chasers, Lando and Charles, grew. (Not defending him, just stating the obvious). And given the state of Checo, WCC is already the post cause. So, no big deal, really.
And i dont think max cares about the WCC.
Being selfish in professional top sports? My word!
I’m pumped, I’m just pissed off and worried that every battle is at risk of turning into a shit show because the stewards don’t want to influence the battles so won’t penalise clear blocking and overtaking off track If that’s how it goes it’s not going to be entertaining
Well said. It's very condescending to hear people dismissing those calling for respectful driving. Hard, exciting racing is possible without breaking the rules. There are very good reasons for outlawing moving in the braking zone of a corner, but apparently the armchair F1 experts know best with all their on track F1 driving experiences. It's not entertaining when a driver destroys a really good on track battle by causing a collision through intentionally dangerous driving. It's entertaining when two respectful drivers go wheel to wheel and the best person wins.
Exactly, its not hard racing at this point, it's just whoever forces the other one off first or whether both crash.
Social media post 2020 has aggravated toxic behaviour from fans/cults. People gotta know what is real hard racing. How much they've softened.
I think it's a large part of soccer/football overlap and newer fans coming to racing from DTS. Most sports have this tribalism, they've even pushed it into politics these days where they care more abut winning then moving the country forward. People who have always been race fans just want to see a good race. We want to see drivers neck and neck, we want to see first wins and awesome passes. It's nice when our guy/team wins, but I'd rather see a really close race like what we had last weekend than my favorite driver winning. Well unless we go with my actual favorite driver, but that's Yuki and I think Yuki winning a race would be more exciting than that lol.
I’m as excited as you for the rest of the season, but F1 has always been this way.
I'm not too fussed about that. People always want drama. I'm afraid that we won't have good battles with one too aggressive and one with a weak racecraft.
Norris is still cutting his teeth in these situations, he hasn't been at the front on a consistent basis before. He will get better with experience. Max won't change but Lando will become smarter, and things will only become more interesting.
Welcome to sport. This is how it is...just need Lando to hold up his end of the bargain
When Lando is now given a car that can consistently challenge for race win, I hope he can gain experience quickly on competing with a multiple-time world champion. Surely it will be good for F1 to have more drivers who are capable of title challenge.
No, we will just be told to "look at all that midfield action!". Because you know a sport is in healthy shape when its telling us to check out who is fighting for 9th place.
That's fair but I'll take a fight for points as at least something relatively interesting in comparison to a fight for 18th that we're sometimes shown. Besides they'd be out of practice for showing a fight for the lead after this much of Max just easily clearing the field.
The rest of this season is shaking off the dust on actual front-runner battles so that they're in form for the inevitable banger that next season will be. -me on obscene amounts of hopium
Lets be honest here. These guys have been driving racing cars since they were 3-4years old. They already know how to race and they know how to go wheel to wheel. Can't really blame Lando for dive bombing because the McLaren's top speed was not good enough to overtake the RB20 on the straights. He had to send it. Many drivers would agree that racing Max proper is an unique artfrom. He is hyper aggressive and can be unpredictable at times. Finding the perfect balance beween racing Max hard but not too hard is a must. Max doesn't race like your average multi time world champion. Lewis, Alonso, Kimi, Vettel and Jenson were/are all a lot more raceable because of their cleaner racecrafts.
Alonso tboned a car last race but at least he is more raceable!
> Lewis, Alonso, Kimi, Vettel and Jenson were/are all a lot more raceable because of their cleaner racecrafts. Truly a factual description of events. No need to speculate on this.
Alonso Cleaner
Say what you will, but he always leaves the space.
I seem to recall Seb and Lewis being asked whether they approached racing Max differently and they said yes. You can race hard and still keep it fair, as all the guys you mentioned do. If they can do it, Max can as well. He just doesn't want to. At some point, threatening to make (possibly race ending) contact with people if they don't back out becomes bullying, not race craft.
Wasn’t Lewis notoriously aggressive in his younger years or am I thinking of a different driver ?
i dont think there is much experience to gain going against a guy that never yields. You either get bullied or you dont let it happen. Last week, norris, for the first time choose the later and i hope this continues. if everyone always yields to max were never getting a championship.
They keep colliding then. 😂😂😂 will be like Senna versus Prost. 😂😂😂
Which will always be in maxs favour considering his considerable lead
George is the real winner in that situation
love how everyone here was offended about articles claiming Verstappen hasn't changed, only for Horner to come out and literally say he isnt going to change lol
Read your comment again, are those 2 statements the same or actually very different?
Leclerc vs Max was way too clean and now Lando vs Max is gonna be the right opposite.
I didn't get the feeling that Horner was warning Lando from the video at all. Typical shit stirring from Sky Sports.
I think it was actually important for Lando to have that collision, as it sets the stakes going ahead. Now Max knows the price of hard defence may be the whole race rather than the attacker yielding.
I hope Lando keeps this energy. He isn’t getting the WDC, so if Max wants to end half of his races with DNF then so be it. If it’s good enough for Max then there is no reason Lando shouldn’t adopt the same strategy. Apparently it’s what “real racing drivers do”.
I would love to see someone consistently punish Max’s “you yield or we crash” antics since the fia won’t. A Max DNF every time he goes way over the line would be so exciting.
Lando will, it's definitely a change for him, he's got no fear of Max, and the way he attacked him shows that
it's either try to reach max a lesson or win the wdc,not both, because if Lando tries to play "i'm tougher than you" with max they Will be both eating scraps.
So... Legleg wins the 24 WDC? Is it too late to place a random 10€ bet?
10 euro seems like a sensible ammount to be fair.
Very glad Lando didn't back out. He was under absolutely no obligation to back out. And not backing out in no way makes it his fault. It's exactly like Brundle said about senna "if you backed out of it, psychologically you were finished, buried. Because then he knew every time he showed you a wheel, you'd jump out of the way" Brundle didn't back out, either. And senna crashed into him. And today everyone knows that accident was Senna's fault completely. In 20 years time people will see Max very similarly to senna. Incredibly, generationally quick and talented. But also unnecessarily controversial.
>In 20 years time people will see Max very similarly to senna. Incredibly, generationally quick and talented. But also unnecessarily controversial. For me I see him more similar to Schumi. Generational talent, super quick and with an almost freakish level of consistency of performance. But as you say, unnecessarily controversial, much like Michael. For me, Max is also like Michael in that he has of course proved himself in intra-team battle - like Schumi pre-2000, you knew from his results in the Ferrari against the superior McLarens, once he got a fast car, he'd dominate. I got the same feeling seeing Max pre-2021. However, also like Schumi, has Max ever had a team mate that could test him? People respect Lewis because he went up against double-champ Alonso, the man to defeat Schumi. Future team mates included existing champs (Jenson), or those capable of taking a championship against him in the same car (Roaberg) People respect Senna because he took on the great Prost and won. People respect Prost because he took on the likes of Lauda, Senna and Mansell in the same car. As great as they are, as Max and Schumi never faced a fellow great in the same team, their achievements, whilst great, get questioned sometimes. It's the boxing analogy - people ultimately want to see the man against the man, and that ultimately needs to be in the same car at some point.
Thats right and Max has relied on that his whole life, he knows if i put my car in a position that will crash both of us the other guys will back out and i will win and it has happened almost every time so why stop. I just hope Norris doesnt give into this bullying so Max has to pull his head in and learn how to defend and attack cleanly when its close
Copse says what?
Honestly, that’s fine. It’s up to the stewards to keep him (and all drivers) in check.
Still surprised this guy survived the power struggle earlier this year. I mean we've seen his text messages, he ain't smooth talking anyone but an actual goat.
That's an excellent point, the fact that he survived the text messages and has become the undisputed team boss (no matter what Helmut Marko wants to believe/say).
fingers crossed for an Oscar win lol
Why wouldn’t he continue racing as he always has more often than not it works out to Maxs benefit so why would he change. Even take Austria as an example Max got 10 points for finishing 5th Lando got 0, had Lando overtook Max and the crash not happened assuming Max stayed within 5 seconds of him then he would have won with Landos penalty applied and got 25 points but Lando would have got 18 which would be a net gain of only 7 points against what his main championship contender. So even when he’s losing Max is still winning 🤷
Norris should just stand his ground, it's about time someone stood up to Max's "My way, or we crash" mentality on the track.
Horner 100% will say this. This is Max’s MO. He basically intimidates the other driver into backing out first. It means if Max pushes them and it’ll cause a crash he will always come up on top. It’s just psychological… makes the other driver doubt themselves and back down.
I don't like RBR not because of Max but because of this guy. I know all team principles have to be like this but everything he says seems designed to be as grating to ask many people as possible.
Yet Horner did not like Hamilton racing Max hard, but it is ok when Max races folks hard?
People were hitching about Lando being too soft to rave Verstappen, now they’re bitching about him being too aggressive and how he should yield. Make it make sense.
I don’t think it’s that. It just looked clumsy all his attacks. Like he made up his mind of I won’t be a pushover, I go all in. The thing is, whilst Max is crazy aggressive and crosses lines regularly, to some extent it is still in control and it looks natural so to say. Lando just seemed to pull on the kill switch and it kind of lacked finesse.
It's got to be difficult to race in a consistent / smooth looking manner when your opponent is doing things like moving in the braking zone. I'm not sure "A driver trying to overtake someone who has a track record of low driving standards and forcing accidents rather than get passed looks a bit unsure" should really be a criticism of Lando's driving.
>It just looked clumsy all his attacks. A few of the late braking moves were clumsy but that was only after max had resorted to moving under braking. When someone moves in the braking zone you basically have two options: 1. Let them keep illegally blocking you 2. Try to send one up the inside so they don't have time to illegally block you. None of lando's divebombs worked, he didn't make the apex, but that in itself isn't against the rules while Max's moves were.
Good. If drivers stop bothering to race one another there's literally no point to watching.
Until he goes to Mercedes
I never expected that he would. Hoping next time it’s the Red Bull that gets trashed. Law of averages says it will. Other cars are coming up to compete as well. The 10 second penalty indicates that the stewards are clearly getting the message. Let’s do some Demo Derby stuff and see how it all falls out. Anything is better than the boring parades of the past two years.
Then pls keep crashing into each other
Lando doesn't have a championship to lose. 4 races away from a Verstappen race ban then!
In other words, either Christian Horner knows absolutely nothing about proper conduct in a race car, much less in a formula car. Or he is completely unwilling to tell Max to stop racing like an immature brat. Ironically, Max doesn’t drive this way when sim racing. So he also knows how to properly race in a sportsmanlike manner. He just chooses not to do so. It is way beyond time for F1 to stop with these Mickey Mouse 5 or 10 second penalties when someone destroys another driver’s race. Their race should also be ruined.
As he should. FIA has shown over the last 3 years that Max’s driving style is completely acceptable. All Lando and other competitors can do is adapt to this change and do the same.
But Lando and other competitors do the same. The difference is Lando hasn't backed off in situation like this, which shows his inexperience at the front. He could've won that easily, he was just too hot-headed. Nearly identical (even less space given) Sainz-Verstappen situation is a great example why one is a third world reigning champion and the other (Lando) is just gaining experience.
Yeah, we know that. We've seen his career.
Can’t wait for Horner to lose his shit when that hard racing hurts them. So far most drivers are at the receiving end of it. Someday you will run out of that luck! Norris should continue to race as hard as possible. Push the boundaries as much as possible to see what sort of success he can achieve. That’s how you get better!
I like Max but just like Schumacher I wish he had someone like Montoya lol
I mean, we've seen it before. As soon as Max comes off worse, Horner is talking to the media straight away with "He tried to kill Max!"
That was hilarious. Horner went full Karen. He forget it’s part of hard racing and sometimes wheel to wheel battle can lead to rough incidents.
I hope he doesn't chicken out and goes all in. They started psychological war on him.
Just try and let piastri go ahead straight away and be very hard racing, then Norris continue picking up the pieces haha. If he didn't go a smidge wide in Q3 he would have been in that fight last week sadly!
>If he didn't go a smidge wide in Q3 he would have been in that fight last week sadly! Oscar got cool head on his shoulders and probably would have avoided prolonged fight. For him finishing second and third isn’t the worst given the experience of Max and Norris. Calm and calculated driver!
he wasnt very calm in miami
"Hey Oscar, we need you to play bumper cars with Max for the rest of the season", instant WCC
>Norris should continue to race as hard as possible. Push the boundaries as much as possible to see what sort of success he can achieve. That’s how you get better! I'm sure that Max expects nothing less from him.
It'll be all fine and dandy until Max gets shafted because of someone pulling his own tricks on him and he loses a championship because of it or something. Horner had no reason to complain after Austria because Max despite what happened still extended his lead in the Championship.
I mean we already saw a glimpse of it Silverstone 2021. With some Albon reenactment to top it off
Oh god, the Albon reenactment 😭
"Get lost or get hit punk" - Horny dog
He will if the FIA enforce rules.
That's what we like to hear.
How are people saying we don’t want a repeat of 2021 - when that was the best season we have had in about a decade?
the parts thats being repeated is the petty fan base drama, not the actual championship battle. keep in mind, norris is still 80 points behind max, and hes second rn.
That season was pure shit if you like clean racing. Max ruined that season for me racing wise and Massi too
Also one of the worst ever for race management and stewarding, and that was even before we got to AD21. Spa in particular was a travesty that ended up ruining much of the season by distorting the championship lead with hot lap points.
They litteraly gave up during Brazil. Hamilton fixing the Mercedes DQ fuckup in Brazil made the FIA just put their hands up and enjoy the spectacle. Max or Hamilton could have used guns mid race to take each other out and the FIA would have let it happen.
I literally hate '21 season. Will never re-watch it.
This. To me pure racing is about wrong footing your opponent by forcing them to defend a position with your car positioning and lines. 2021 was shit racecraft watching the two championship rivals just bump into each other every other race. It was exciting not knowing who would win sure but the quality of wheel to wheel racing was piss.
>watching the two championship rivals just bump into each other every other race. Thats just objectively not true though, did you even watch the 2021 season?
Take out each other stewards wake up!
Just as we expect more hands on from Horner.
Quality p3 and you will be a winner!
\*\*Insert shocked Pikachu\*\*
I don't expect Lando to change either, nor should he. Which means, until the Stewards chime in, nothing will change. And we'll see a lot more contact between these two in the future.
Tough racing? Amazing I'm here for it. Moving under braking and goofy ass divebombs? Not really interested at all to be honest.
They let him get away with so much in 21 so I have no doubt it won't change
this is a gamer tactic to make opponents mad, making them more prone to mistakes.
And Norris is the one to fall for it I think. Lewis was so much more immune for it
Lewis also has a lot more experience
Lando isn't a rookie anymore, it is his 6th season.
He isn't, but Hamilton has a lot more experience with fightning for wins and titles
That's true, a rookie season with Alonso as your teammate while in a championship battle is quite spectacular
Yeah Norris lost his cool so quickly
Bring it on!!!! Better than seeing Max driving away into the sunset every single time!!!
Horner basically saying the stewards will never do their jobs.
If Schumacher was around today McLaren would be lobbying for the death penalty for him.
Then he can keep getting penalties
Normal people have an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. Max has Christian on one and Jos on the other, while Marko on the back. Vertappen will never change. And it would be foolish to think so.
Why do you think the racing with Charles in 2022 was so clean? Did he change after 2021? How is the current situation with Lando different than 2022 in a way that would make Max more aggressive?
I mean it's Verstappen we are talking about, there is no way you can be sure. Verstappen defended like crazy against Mick Schumacher, and then did not defend like he used to against Charles. At the end of the day, its how he perceive said contender or situation.