Verstappen is impatient at times. It's one of the few chinks in his race craft and has cost him points in the past. In 2023 he had the best car on the grid, maybe one of the best ever cars in F1. That allowed him to cruise to multiple victories. This season? He capitalised on the RB20's early form, now he's got swamped by other cars who've picked up the pace. Convergence for these set of regulations has arrived sooner than most expected. It's a game of winning where he can and maximising his points when wins aren't possible alongside finishing ahead of Lando.f1isgood wrote: ↑26 Jul 2024, 15:40To address Horner's point: Teams are not stupid. They have all the data. And I am pretty sure Red Bull know where they are weak. And yes while it would help to publicly acknowledge the job Max is doing, I am not sure the dynamics within the team are the same as they used to be a couple of years ago where they acknowledged their shortcomings, ever since the saga.taperoo2k wrote: ↑25 Jul 2024, 14:37Horner and co are in denial that the RB20 isn't anywhere near as good as the RB19. Nor that McLaren have found genuine speed.f1isgood wrote: ↑25 Jul 2024, 13:27
I thought it was just Horner, but it is also Marko and others saying car was the best etc.
Max is also not driving as well as he used to, especially the past few races. Getting general frustration get to you is the easiest way to tank this championship. He should simply accept reality that Red Bull are unlikely to have the best car for majority if not all the races and do what he does best -- remain consistent and keep getting them points every weekend. There's no one better at it than him and if he keeps it like 2021, he will very likely get this title.
Max is still Max. The only difference between this year and last year? He had the best car on the grid, this season he doesn't. So, he hasn't got the speed advantage to overtake easily. One thing he's never really learned to do is to be patient with overtakes. It's always a dive up the inside or an overly ambitious overtake. If he continues as is, he'll start racking up penalties from the stewards.
Verstappen is Verstappen but he is unironically also the maximizer of the results on the grid. You cannot take one race where a divebomb didn't work and use to make a gross generalization. Let's analyze situations on their own merit and not add our own priors that we will never change based on evidence to make a point. The best he could have done is P3 in that race. Maybe he should have settled for P4 but that is not who he is and over a season that seems to be enough to beat everyone on the grid. I can generally criticize many things about Max recently but I don't think making comments like he has never really learnt to be patient with overtakes is by any means a good take.
The question for Red Bull is will they figure out the RB20's problems quickly or will any fixes have to wait for the RB21? If there is an issue with the design of the suspension (for example)? Not something you can easily fix in season given the cost cap.
