LONDON – Although the Formula One championship this year began with British driver, Lewis Hamilton, laying down a marker in his pursuit of a record-breaking eighth World title, it was Max Verstappen, who was up in P1 by the time it hit Monaco, extending his lead to 33 points with four wins in five races.
As Toto Wolff pointed out, at the time, that one DNF was all it takes to change the picture, the Mercedes boss couldn’t have been more accurate because that was exactly what happened to Max at Silverstone, and another crash in Hungary one race later put Lewis back in the dominant position.
The pendulum, which started to swing yet again in favour of Max with back-to-back wins in Belgium and the Netherlands, swung in the opposite direction in Russia when Lewis regained the P1 position, only to have Max triumphantly hit back in Turkey.
Now, with six races remaining − 159 points in total as there are still three to come from a sprint race − the two are separated by just six points. Pundits predict that the two remaining races will go to Mercedes, two will favour Red Bull, while Qatar and Saudi Arabia will be anyone’s guess.
According to Planet F1, former Ferrari chief turned Formula One president and chief executive officer, Stefano Domenicali, is loving it.
“Last time we found ourselves in such a tight fight for the championship, I was on the team side at Ferrari, with the title going down to the final race in 2010 and 2012 – so I know what it means to live this kind of intensity,” he told the official Formula One website.
Although the focus is largely on the title race between Max and Lewis, Stefano rightly stresses on the importance of the ‘best of the rest’ battles waged further down the grid with McLaren being 7.5 points up on Ferrari, Alpine 12 ahead of AlphaTauri and Williams determined to hold off Alfa Romeo.
Even when there are no points involved, such as the intra-team battle at Haas, which Mick Schumacher leads by virtue of his P12 at the Hungarian Grand Prix, there is pride at stake.
“It’s fantastic for Formula One to have such an intense fight, but I don’t want to only focus on that, as we have the fight for other positions,” Stefano continued.
“McLaren and Ferrari, for example, are battling hard for third.
“And we have battles, all the way down the field, with the final positions in the constructors’ championship critical for teams regarding their positioning for the future.
“I can’t wait for the next six events, as they are six opportunities for something new and incredible to happen, in what has so far been one of the great seasons in F1.” – Agencies, October 21, 2021
