Red Bull Max Verstappen drove to his fifth win of the season at the San Marino GP and leads the World Series by 33 points. At the end of the race, Verstappen put a lot of pressure on McLaren Lando Norris however, it showed that Red Bull is no longer as superior as it used to be.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was third, while Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas was the 18th finisher.
Urheilu’s F1 expert Jukka Mildh kick off the talking points of the Imola race weekend.
What speaks?
Verstappen looked set for a clear victory, until Norris whipped his McLaren into a frenzy in the last ten laps. Norris caught the Dutchman, but the trip ended.
However, we are on the brink of something new in F1, as McLaren has thrown Red Bull a real challenge in the previous races. A couple of weeks ago in Miami, the 24-year-old Norris achieved the team’s first race win for McLaren in almost three years.
A year ago, McLaren’s early season was miserable, but in July it bounced back with a new development package to fight for the top positions. If the team manages to develop its car as the season progresses, like last year, we might see several great battles for victory between Red Bull and McLaren.
– Throughout its history, McLaren has every opportunity to do things like a winning team, even though the owners change from time to time. Things are done very systematically there, as if in a big team like Red Bull. McLaren is starting to have resources in almost the same category. This is a sign that the garage makes the cars work technically well.
Mildh adds that McLaren’s advantage is a great driver duo. The 23-year-old driving for the second season in the team Oscar Piastri has developed as a racing driver. On Sunday, he was fourth.
– He is also very hard hit. Everything McLaren is doing right now is going to be successful.
Mildh believes that Red Bull’s sporting activities are currently showing several upheavals at the beginning of the year. The organization is not able to fully focus on what is essential, which opens up a gap for challengers to catch up.
The expert still does not see that the tightened competitive situation would significantly affect the World Cup battle. The gap between Verstappen and Norris is currently 60 points.
– However, I dare to bet that the point differences are not as huge as they have been until now. However, it requires that McLaren is able to drive for wins and Ferrari is able to drive a wedge. This will be an even season for a long time, says Mildh.
Who surprised?
One of the most positive surprises of the early season is RB’s (formerly Alpha Tauri) Yuki Tsunoda cheerful touches. The Japanese reached the points again on Sunday and is promisingly tenth in the World Championship.
The performance of Red Bull’s so-called second team is generally good at the moment.
– It was positive that Tsunoda made it to the top ten in qualifying. There is such a sense of surprise.
A flop?
A clear disappointment was Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso weak weekend. Everything went wrong even before Saturday’s qualifying practice, where Alonso crashed.
– Now someone went really badly wrong. The car could not be repaired quickly enough. When you have to improvise in the middle of the weekend and the package is not assembled, it shows like that, Mildh says.
What about Bottas?
Bottas’ race weekend didn’t offer much to talk about in terms of track events. In qualifying, the Finn was 16th and beat his teammate Zhou Guanyun.
For Finns, the observations about Bottas’ visit to the Williams team were interesting. He was seen chatting with the team manager by James Vowles with.
Vowles is already familiar to Bottas from Mercedes, where he served as chief strategist, among other things. Rumors immediately began to spread in the public that Bottas, who is without a contract after this season, would be going to Williams.
In addition to Williams, Bottas has been linked to Haas, among others. Current Williams driver Alex Albon recently signed a multi-year contract extension with the team.
– If the goal is to stay in formula one, of course Williams is one option. It may not be the most motivating environment in the world right now, but if you look to the future, Williams may well be moving forward. Albon is not a bad option either, so the package could be good.
– The fact that the driver is seen competing in the premises of the stable is not surprising in my opinion. In this situation, where there is a lot of talk about stable places, there is also a paparazzi mood. Of course, Bottas wants to show that he is also active himself. That visit could just as well have been saying goodbye to old friends, Mildh reminds.
What next?
The F1 season continues this weekend at Monaco’s classic street circuit. In terms of sports, the games themselves are on a very narrow track, far from spectacles.
Time trial is very important. A year ago, several teams drove from pole position in the race.
– If McLaren’s same strong trend continues, I won’t be at all surprised if Norris drives there from the pole position. Monaco is completely different in nature from other races, because there you drive in a queue. Verstappen will probably do well there, but Leclerc can also be strong in his home race.