“Only Max can stop Max” Jolyon Palmer feels it will take a MONUMENTAL effort to stop Max Verstappen
Follow Us
Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen is in an incredibly comfortable situation on top of the driver standings. He’s 80 points ahead of his closest rival, Charles Leclerc, but one can say that he has been rather fortunate to have such a gap. That of course does not mean that he does not deserve to win the championship.
Verstappen has been almost faultless in his driving this year – the general consensus is that he has been much more mature in his driving this year compared to the last, and this has been attributed to him having less pressure: He has already won the championship once, everything else is just a bonus.
Obviously, he has been given much help by his competitors in Ferrari. Charles Leclerc has made two relatively unforced errors, which have cost him around at least 32 points. But Ferrari have also had multitudes of reliability problems, and then there have been contentious strategic decisions. However, that is motor racing, and it seems their window to challenge Max Verstappen and Red Bull is rapidly closing.
Jolyon Palmer: Max Verstappen has ‘looked more assured’ this year
In a blog post on Formula 1‘s official website, Jolyon Palmer discussed the various talking points for this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix. One of them was – Can anyone actually stop Max Verstappen now? All in all, it is rather unlikely that Ferrari or Charles Leclerc will win the championship from here. They made far too many errors in the first part of the season.
Jolyon Palmer is of a similar view, and said: “Ferrari should have been the team to cause Red Bull headaches, but it hasn’t worked out that way, and Mercedes aren’t in a position to concern Red Bull either at this stage.” Indeed, one could argue that Ferrari has generally had the faster car on most weekends, but they have made very costly errors, and that has derailed their season.
At one point, it was thought that Sergio Perez could challenge for the championship as well. After Monaco, he was not behind Max Verstappen by a lot, but Verstappen stepped it up a gear in the next few races, while Perez also suffered retirements in two races, which quieted down his own challenge.
Palmer continued: “So with an 80-point lead in the championship and only nine races to go, perhaps only Max can stop Max at this point. He’s a driver who has looked more assured this year returning as a champion, and it will take more than a monumental effort from someone else to turn this around.”
At this point, it will take very costly, and multiple mistakes from Max Verstappen and Red Bull to truly give Ferrari a chance. And there is no guarantee that Ferrari will be spotless either, and the gap just may be too far gone.
Stay Updated!
Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)