Max Verstappen’s path to another pair of Formula 1 race wins at the Belgian Grand Prix included him being bluntly told to “use your head” by his Red Bull engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.
Why the “edgy rapport” between the pair seemed particularly tense at Spa is one of the many topics Edd Straw, Mark Hughes and Scott Mitchell-Malm tackle in The Race F1 Podcast.
They also discuss whether Sergio Perez’s return to second place in a Red Bull 1-2 after a three-month absence will actually be more demoralising than reassuring, Carlos Sainz and Oscar Piastri’s clash, George Russell’s loss of form compared to Lewis Hamilton and whether Spa is really up to standard as a modern F1 venue.
And as ever, we answer plenty of questions from The Race Members’ Club.
0:00 Intro
2:34 Verstappen’s double
7:06 Perez’s back in the top two
9:28 The fight for third
11:02 Russell’s pace
12:31 Sainz vs Piastri
17:53 Aston Martin still behind
20:54 Norris’s recovery
26:12 Alpine’s tumultuous weekend
31:33 Tsunoda back in the points
34:19 What happened to Williams?
35:33 Piastri to Red Bull?
36:47 Hamilton’s tyre choice
37:29 Norris at La Source
38:13 Could Verstappen win from the back?
39:24 Russell vs Hamilton
40:13 Stroll’s crash
41:27 McLaren’s compromise
42:55 Max and GP
44:48 Are the FIA too cautious with wet weather?
47:18 Should Sainz have received a penalty?
48:39 Do stewards take outcome of incident into account?
50:40 Who’s in best shape for the rest of the year?
52:56 Why do Max’s team-mates start well and then fade?
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32 Comments
For the same reason Vegeta never beats Goku – he’s not as strong.
Second drivers will always be second drivers even if they are world champions because first drivers inevatably have been with the team for many years so the car is deigned around them Time and Time again we see this Hamilton and Alonso Hamilton and now George First part of the season all seems equal and then as time goes on the number one driver gets the car he wants the number two has to adjust accordingly For a number two to beat the number one is almost impossible just like red bull many years ago with Vettel and Webber just the same sinario ..It takes a hell off a lot of luck for a number two to beat a number one just look at the stats if you do not agree !!!
44:12 I love the comment about how strong-willed individuals communicating very directly might be offensive to "English sensibilities." Great observation from an Englishman.
“Christian Horner loves the spikey tension of Max and GP” … yeah until they stop winning with such ease and the gap is vastly closed by say McLaren, AMG or AMR 😅
@44:22 Have to laugh a bit at that. My fairly direct Americanism have unintentionally stepped on toes a few times when working with our offices across the pond.
English press hyping the jabs between GP and Max. They are trying their hardest to fuck up that team😭. Even this channel loves it
You didn't really answer that last question – basically said that Checo tucked his tail between his legs after Miami and has been unable to extract it since – not a real answer. I've not heard one racing "expert" explain how Verstappen was able to chase down Perez after 16 laps and pass him like he was driving a different car, winning by 22 seconds in a 44 lap race. That's not just "psychological" – there's got to be more to it. What specific driving skills and abilities allow him to extract so much more pace out of what we keep being told is the same car?
Max and GP = Tony Stark and Rhodey.
Considering the pace difference between Max and Perez with an absolutely dominant car. It makes me wonder how many times teams have had a dominant car but not the drivers to use it's potential. If the team had 2 Perezs you'd think the car was a fairly average car.
Carlos` race craft I feel has gone down in the last year, I feel he is frustrated that Charles seems to be faster than him generally. lots of weaving and aggressive behaviour lately, and that was a ridiculous move into la source at the start of the race not expecting anyone to be there, rookie error.
Its because he is a bum.
Checo has been psychologically buried. Finito.😅
Cmon, the race, get us an interview with GP!!!!!!
people also forget that hes FUCKING THIRTY YEARS OLD and his prime years are behind him. if he was just a few years younger and in his prime he would be closer for sure, hes always been one of the most underrated drivers on the grid. only truly exceptional drivers retain most of their prime talent in their thirties. thats why the majority of the grid is full of dudes in their 20s. i didnt expect him to drop off so quickly because he has performed well up until this year. its also not easy to be the second driver on team max verstappen, they clearly only care about him and have for years. so fucking sick of idiots asking this "why is person no good no more?!?!?" in every sport.
If AstonMartin though that’s not wet session and didn’t use softs Then way they didn’t use DRS,?????????
I imagine the cost cap plays a role. Teams can chose between making a car that two different drivers with two different styles will find acceptable (maybe what most teams do) vs a car that the team's number one driver can weaponize (what Red Bull clearly does now and what Mercedes did when Bottas was there). If money no longer mattered, perhaps RB could engineer Perez' car to better suit his style. You can see from the analysis of driving lines, Perez and Max drive very differently and they get something different out of the car.
The Race is always trying to find issues with Red Bull. there isn't any between Max and GP it's just how two greats work together. It's far better than "we are checking…." at Ferrari.
Sainz is a douche, no news there. He just dont get that much interest from anyone to notice it.
Sorry, but people need to stop excusing the Perez-Hamilton crash. Hamilton both could and should realize that his corner was compromised, and backed off on the overtake. Instead, he kept going at it.
Because in Saudi Arabia when Checo WON, Max had 20 laps to close a 3 second Gap to overtake Checo and couldn't do it… after that Redbull, Max, and Daddy Vertsappen couldn't cope with their Golden Child a Once in a lifetime talent finishing Second so they had to move things around in Checos car so that he wouldn't beat little Max again. They don't have the same car but you people keep mentioning that they do lol
Anymore? When did he ever get close? All his victories were when Max had some issue.
Its not complicated, each driver has their own style and preference and RBR ONLY fine tunes the car towards what max wants and checo just has to deal with it. If they only set up the car and did upgrades skewed towards how checo likes the car the results would be very different not saying he would win but it would be closer at a minnimum
It's funny how the pundits are the only ones defending Oscar and blaming Carlos.
All of the driver's knew that Oscar's move into turn 1 was overly ambitious and likely to cause a crash
The one HUGE mistake Checo did was to try to drive like Max. You just cant erase years and years of Habit and instinct in a matter of a couple of weekends. He was venturing dangerously into McLaren DannyRic territory of thinking while driving. never good. Miami bent him, Monaco broke him.
This channel keeps overselling Max to us. You need to stop! No one doubts Max is a top driver, but he is not a GOD or an out if this world being. We all know that his car and the whole RB team is taylor made for him. Thier second driver is that, second. Second rate team for Checo, Second choice everything for Checo, Everyone knows that.
I cannot wait for another car to match the RedBull. Because then, we will all see that Max is NOT the god he is being promoted to be. Let's not forget that before RedBull was the best car, Max had YEARS of bad drives, having to really race against other cars and he made many many mistakes and was never above the top drivers/cars like mercedes and Lewis, Bottas. Also he made so many driving mistakes under pressure while having to race wheel to wheel. Yes now he is the KING of EMPTY AIR since no other car/team/engineer can match it. he is always alone ahead.
I still don’t buy Max’s dominance over Perez. As soon as it got competitive and both drivers had similar pace, Max started complaining, suddenly Perez pace dropped and his car drivebility changed. Suddenly max was .5 sec per lap ahead of Perez and Perez could not control the car. Do me is evident that redbull made a decision to build a gap between both drivers once they new the constructors was evidently in the bag. Why was Checo maintaining Max in the first stint and completely fell apart after the first pit stop, what changed? It just looks to obvious. Maybe I am wrong.
It can't be even possible that there are people that really believe the difference on ability between Max and Checo is such that it allows Max to have a gap of 1.5s in just 5 corners.
max has the mental strength to be able to be at the highest level over the length of a full season, checo isn't capable of doing that besides being a great driver as well.
you see the same with darts, opponents of van gerwen often give vn gerwen a hard time first few legs, but as van gerwen is able to deliver the same over the full length of a match he wins as his opponents can't keep up.
besides max mental strenght he also is just naturally gifted with great race craft, most others need to work hard just to keep up. no spare space in their brains to think about other stuff then how to make the corners and so on
Great work as always 👊🏽👏🏽
Sabotage Plain and simple.😂
Have been to Spa twice and loved the spectacle, but the facilities are poor due to being in the middle of a forest, so always going to a challenge.