Why RATTLED Verstappen risks throwing title lead away in struggle with returning F1 problem
Why RATTLED Verstappen risks throwing title lead away in struggle with returning F1 problem
After the first seven rounds of the 2024 Formula 1 season, Max Verstappen was romping towards what appeared to be a certain fourth successive title on the horizon.
The Red Bull star had won five races, earned a commanding championship advantage, and was driving by far the quickest car in the field.
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Combine those factors with the momentum he and his team had built by mercilessly dominating F1 in much of 2022 and 2023, and the idea that this year’s title was there to be contested for anybody else was utterly fanciful. But fast forward six more rounds, and Verstappen is at risk of throwing away his early-season gains.
In Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix, the Dutchman finished a lowly fifth, over a pitstop behind first-time race winner Oscar Piastri in the McLaren, which has gone from midfield contender at the start of the campaign to the fastest machine on the grid thanks to an equally irrepressible and unexpected rate of development from the Woking-based squad.
Piastri’s team-mate Lando Norris finished second in controversial circumstances, the Brit cutting Verstappen’s lead out front in the drivers’ standings to 76 points. That is still a significant gap, but Verstappen has won none of the past three races, finishing on the podium only once, and is no longer driving a car with such a significant speed advantage over its rivals that he can cruise on stretches of tarmac belonging entirely to himself.
Instead, Verstappen now needs to truly race his rivals on race weekends again, for the first time since the very early part of 2022. And the signs are that this returning problem is unnerving him.
Is the 'old' Verstappen making a comeback?
The 26-year-old has already caused a collision with closest challenger Norris, taking him out of the race in Austria as he refused to give up the lead of the race despite clearly not having the pace to maintain his position legitimately.
Verstappen has always been a driver who harnesses extreme aggression and perseverance to win, operating on the limit of what is acceptable on track to break his opponents. That is simultaneously what makes him so brilliant at his best and so petty and juvenile at his worst.
And in Budapest on Sunday the negative side took hold as Verstappen sank to new depths of belligerence and obnoxiousness. Having lost out to Norris at the start, he drove off the track before rejoining in front of the McLaren, compromising his own race by refusing to give the place back until instructed to do so by race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.
READ MORE: Verstappen investigated by FIA over controversial Hungarian GP moment
As the McLarens drove into distance throughout the rest of the race, an immensely irritated Verstappen proceeded to engage in an offensive tirade against Lambiase and the rest of the Red Bull team over the radio.
“It’s quite impressive how we let ourselves get completely undercut and just completely **** my race,” Verstappen complained after his first pitstop.
After a succession of further expletive-laden interjections from Verstappen, he lost it further following his final stop, responding to a request from Lambiase to manage his tyres with: “No mate, don’t give me that that ****,” Verstappen hastily retorted. “You guys gave me this **** strategy - I’m trying to rescue what’s left.”
And finally, after steaming into Turn 1 with far too much speed as he desperately tried to pass old rival Lewis Hamilton, Verstappen was straight on the radio to try and blame the Mercedes man for what was evidently his own error. Lambiase was having none of it.
What did Verstappen have to say for himself?
“I’m not even going to get into a fight with the other teams, Max,” came Lambiase’s reply. “We’ll let the stewards do their thing. It’s childish on the radio. Childish.”
After the race, a typically bullish Verstappen – who had been online until the early hours of Sunday morning conducting sim-races - refused to apologise to his team and doubled down on his disillusionment with their approach to the race.
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“Of course [I'm] not happy,” Verstappen said. “On a day when you’re lacking pace compared to McLaren, you try and hope we do the right things with the strategy and that was not the case. That’s why today was a tough race for us and naturally that frustrates me.
“I don’t think we need to apologise, we just need to do a better job. I don’t know why some people think you can’t be vocal on the radio. This is a sport, if you don’t like it, stay home.”
This kind of attitude – Verstappen believing he is always in the right and things are better off when he is allowed to say and do as he wishes – is abrasive and uncomfortable to listen to, but has taken him to three world championships already. It is unlikely to change and logic dictates there is little reason it should.
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What next for Verstappen and the championship?
But things are different now. Verstappen is no longer driving comfortably the fastest car on the grid, and a fourth title is nowhere near guaranteed given the pace advantage McLaren clearly enjoy over Red Bull as things stand.
In the past three races alone, he has twice cost himself a glut of points by causing collisions. With his team clearly needing to develop the car if he is to be able to match the McLarens’ new-found pace, raging against them throughout the entirety of a grand prix with a plethora of insults and profanities is hardly the kind of motivation that people generally respond well to.
In essence, Verstappen is at risk of throwing away the advantage he has in this year’s title race if he continues to reach such extreme levels of frustration and allows it to compromise his driving.
A 76-point lead is still massive with over half of the season gone. If Verstappen can just knuckle down in races where the McLaren if the faster car, avoid errors and collisions, and maximise his own result, he can comfortably win the championship.
If he persists in creating conflict with his colleague and collisions out on circuit, though, he could find himself in real bother sooner rather than later.
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F1 Race Calendar 2024
-
GP AUSTRALIA
22 - 24 Mar
Carlos Sainz
-
GP JAPAN
5 - 7 Apr
Max Verstappen
-
GP CHINA
19 - 21 Apr
Max Verstappen
-
GP USA
3 - 5 May
Lando Norris
-
GP ITALY
17 - 19 May
Max Verstappen
-
GP MONACO
24 - 26 May
Charles Leclerc
-
GP CANADA
7 - 9 Jun
Max Verstappen
-
GP SPAIN
21 - 23 Jun
Max Verstappen
-
GP AUSTRIA
28 - 30 Jun
George Russell
-
GP GREAT BRITAIN
5 - 7 Jul
Lewis Hamilton
-
GP HUNGARY
19 - 21 Jul
Oscar Piastri
-
GP BELGIUM
26 - 28 Jul
Lewis Hamilton
-
GP NETHERLANDS
23 - 25 Aug
Lando Norris
-
GP ITALY
30 Aug - 1 Sep
Charles Leclerc
-
GP AZERBAIJAN
13 - 15 Sep
Oscar Piastri
- GP SINGAPORE 20 - 22 Sep
- GP USA 18 - 20 Oct
- GP MEXICO 25 - 27 Oct
- GP BRAZIL 1 - 3 Nov
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F1 Standings
Drivers
- Charles Leclerc
- Carlos Sainz
- Lando Norris
- Oscar Piastri
- Pierre Gasly
- Esteban Ocon
- Sergio Pérez
- Max Verstappen
- Alexander Albon
- Franco Alejandro Colapinto
- Logan Sargeant
- Lewis Hamilton
- George Russell
- Oliver Bearman
- Nico Hülkenberg
- Kevin Magnussen
- Fernando Alonso
- Lance Stroll
- Valtteri Bottas
- Zhou Guanyu
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Yuki Tsunoda
Races
- Gulf Air Grand Prix of Bahrain 2024
- Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Australia 2024
- MSC Cruises Grand Prix of Japan 2024
- Grand Prix of China 2024
- Miami Grand Prix 2024
- Gran Premio dell'Emilia Romagna 2024
- Grand Prix of Monaco 2024
- AWS Grand Prix du Canada 2024
- Gran Premio de España 2024
- Grand Prix of Austria 2024
- Grand Prix of Great Britain 2024
- Grand Prix of Hungary 2024
- Grand Prix of Belgium 2024
- Heineken Dutch Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Italy 2024
- Grand Prix of Azerbaijan 2024
- Grand Prix of Singapore 2024
- Grand Prix of the United States 2024
- Gran Premio de la Ciudad de Mexico 2024
- Grande Prêmio de São Paulo 2024
- Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix 2024
- Qatar Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi 2024
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