The new era of Formula 1 has brought with it a new battle in the fight for victories at the start of the season: Ferrari against Red Bull. Both teams have shared the races equally between the two great protagonists of the moment, Leclerc, who leads the World Cup with 86 points, and Verstappen, 27 behind. Now they are the ones who leave battles to remember like those in Bahrain or Arabia, but Just a few months ago the one who had it with Max was another, Hamilton. And that was indeed a war.
Time later and with that title under the ‘winged’ arm of Red Bull, Adrian Newey He acknowledges that the Dutchman did not always perform well on the track against the seven-time Mercedes champion. He does it in ‘The-Race’, where he begins by talking about the benefits of Verstappen: “The good thing about Max is that you always know what the car is capable of because he always gets in and ‘wrings his neck’. His comments are good, he is very aware of what the tires do and how to manage them. I think his wild reputation is unfair.”
And that’s when he precisely remembers two of the most tense moments of the year in which the reigning champion lost his way a bit: Interlagos and Jeddah. “Probably, what he did in Brazil last year was a bit bad and the Arabia thing was silly, but I think he got frustrated because Lewis didn’t get ahead of him, but still he shouldn’t have done a brake test on him.” assumes the Red Bull engineer, who also remembers what Hamilton did: “But Silverstone for me was a clear professional fault and people seem to have little memory.”
Verstappen is ‘very easy to work with’
Whoever is without guilt cast the first stone. But contrary to the reputation of hard earned by some, Newey says that “it’s very easy to work” with Max, who compares him with the other great champion of the house energetic, Vettel: “Sebastian was very, very detailed in his post-session analysis. The reports would go on for quite some time. Seb would stay up late into the night, reviewing on-board video, data, talking to his engineer… That’s what that it worked for him, it’s not a criticism. Max isn’t that extreme, he’s more in the middle.”