British GP: Will Max Verstappen Consolidate His Dominance This Weekend?
Red Bull and Verstappen look unbeatable. Ferrari can still show opposition?
Silverstone cannot be mentioned without mentioning Sir Lewis Hamilton, who is the top winner with eight victories in his home race, but that streak will probably end this weekend.
In this sense, it should be remembered that Red Bull was very strong last year, with Max Verstappen who took pole position but finished the race before seeing the checkered flag due to a collision with Hamilton himself, who would end up winning.
Redemption for Verstappen?
Max has never won at this circuit, so there may be an extra motivation because of that, but above all, there is probably the desire to redeem himself for what happened last year.
In addition, we must not leave aside the most important thing, the fight for the championship, with 13 races to finish the season and with 46 points that separate Verstappen from his teammate, Sergio “Checo” Pérez, who is second, nothing is certain for the Dutch driver.
Reliability is still a common problem, for all the teams, and it is a factor that can appear at any moment of the race or qualifying and affect the entire weekend. This happened precisely to Checo Pérez, who after his own mistake in qualifying, the comeback in the race was not possible due to a gearbox issue, which prevented him from continuing and he had to leave on the eighth lap.
Because of this, nothing is said, but the reality is that Red Bull with Verstappen at the helm is the favorite and rival of a Ferrari team that will try to have better results after several weekends to forget, and Mercedes that with an all -British line up will seek to surprise everyone and bring joy to the locals with their drivers.
Nico Rosberg: “Ferrari has nothing to lose”
After all the disasters, whether due to strategies, pit stops, or problems with the reliability of the car, Ferrari finds itself in a perhaps unexpected scenario at the start of the season. But, all of this has helped to lower expectations regarding the team and this allows them to arrive quietly with the possibility of getting back into the fight for the championship.
Taking this into account, the last image we have of the Italian team is not so bad, with a Charles Leclerc as the Driver of the Day after an excellent comeback from nineteenth place to fifth and a Carlos Sainz Jr who came in second place but put Max Verstappen under pressure in the last laps after the Safety Car caused by Yuki Tsunoda.
This is something that should not go unnoticed when thinking about this weekend, and like Nico Rosberg said, with the pressure now on Red Bull’s side, Ferrari has everything to gain if they (finally) manage to get things right.
And, what about Mercedes?
With all the attention from the media focused on them after the new floor support bracket that has been questioned surrounding the timing when it was made legal and when they incorporated it into the car, as well as being the home race for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, Mercedes arrives at Silverstone with a positive attitude after Lewis’ podium in Montreal and hoping to get good results.
But, as Toto Wolff said, the Silver Arrows hope that the podiums will come on merit and not because of their rivals’ mistakes, and it is true that they have made a lot of progress since the start of the season but maybe this is not the weekend to expect some change in their results, because, in the end, it seems that they are still far from Red Bull and Ferrari.
Despite the fact that Silverstone may be a circuit that suits them better than the previous ones, the reality is that expecting them to get closer to the leaders seems difficult, but what can we expect from Mercedes, which they have shown so far this season, is that they continue in this upward path of performance, as they are clearly the third-best team of the season and neither Alpine, McLaren, Alfa Romeo or AlphaTauri have been able to keep up with them so far.
The Bottom Line
In the end, the British Grand Prix will be a turning point in the championship as we approach the halfway point, this being Round 10 of 22 in total.
So, will we continue to see Verstappen dominate alongside Red Bull? Or will Ferrari take advantage of this weekend and show that they are still in the fight? Will Mercedes have a chance? Let me know, it will be interesting to know your opinion!
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