Verstappen could have won the title in the 2018 Ferrari.
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Following his sensational lap in Saturday's qualifying which saw Charles Leclerc claim a shock pole position for Ferrari, the Monegasque endured a heartbreaking result at the Hungarian Grand Prix despite his impressive pace during his first two stints of the race. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo delivers his latest analysis in his column branded as F1MATHS.
Ferrari have been front runners for a good while now on average.
How can they listen to his inputs when they can't even reach him? Didn't you hear him at the end of the season? "No one will be able to get hold of me this winter. I won’t have my phone with me". Maybe Maranello can send a pigeon to collect Lewis' dossiers. Or maybe he wouldn't be unreachable if his off-track input was so valuable in the first place. Food for thought.PlatinumZealot wrote: ↑20 Dec 2025, 14:49Outsiders keep on talking, meanwhile Ferrari are listening to his inputs for the 2026 car (you saw the mercedes clone steering wheel?) and making operational changes. More to come for sure. This chapter is not over.
Ironically Id say Hamilton in the Ferrari would have won it in 2018 vs Vettel in the merc as well
I hope you aren't expecting a serious response..Badger wrote: ↑20 Dec 2025, 15:33How can they listen to his inputs when they can't even reach him? Didn't you hear him at the end of the season? "No one will be able to get hold of me this winter. I won’t have my phone with me". Maybe Maranello can send a pigeon to collect Lewis' dossiers. Or maybe he wouldn't be unreachable if his off-track input was so valuable in the first place. Food for thought.PlatinumZealot wrote: ↑20 Dec 2025, 14:49Outsiders keep on talking, meanwhile Ferrari are listening to his inputs for the 2026 car (you saw the mercedes clone steering wheel?) and making operational changes. More to come for sure. This chapter is not over.
No I am.PlatinumZealot wrote: ↑21 Dec 2025, 01:14I hope you aren't expecting a serious response..Badger wrote: ↑20 Dec 2025, 15:33How can they listen to his inputs when they can't even reach him? Didn't you hear him at the end of the season? "No one will be able to get hold of me this winter. I won’t have my phone with me". Maybe Maranello can send a pigeon to collect Lewis' dossiers. Or maybe he wouldn't be unreachable if his off-track input was so valuable in the first place. Food for thought.PlatinumZealot wrote: ↑20 Dec 2025, 14:49Outsiders keep on talking, meanwhile Ferrari are listening to his inputs for the 2026 car (you saw the mercedes clone steering wheel?) and making operational changes. More to come for sure. This chapter is not over.
Like most other top drivers he might be a very good "sensor" the engineers are trying to interpret data from ...PlatinumZealot wrote: ↑20 Dec 2025, 14:49Outsiders keep on talking, meanwhile Ferrari are listening to his inputs for the 2026 car (you saw the mercedes clone steering wheel?) and making operational changes. More to come for sure. This chapter is not over.
https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/how- ... errari-f1/However, the most obvious ones were situations where the Ferrari was too front-limited for Leclerc's liking, or in low-downforce, low-grip conditions. As Leclerc has admitted, his on-the-edge qualifying approach can let him down in such conditions.
"It's not one of my strengths, qualifying on very low-grip tracks," said Leclerc after qualifying 0.319s behind Sainz in Mexico, a track where cars run in high-downforce configuration but with low downforce levels thanks to the reduced air density at altitude.
"I tend to push quite a lot in qualifying and in Monza and here [Mexico] I struggle quite a lot with that. You slide a lot because there is very low grip. You've just got to be a little bit less on the limit on those tracks and I struggle a bit more to do that."
Sainz, by comparison, thrives in such conditions. That was obvious early in their partnership when Sainz outqualified Leclerc at the 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix at a windy Portimao. This made the partnership work well as Sainz's skillset often filled in effectively for the occasions when Leclerc wasn't at his best. In that regard, it was arguably the best-balanced driver pairing in F1.
Seems Leclerc has made some good progress in this regard, judging based on his 2025 qualifying performance at Mexico.AR3-GP wrote: ↑22 Dec 2025, 10:12I thought this was interesting and I don't remember reading it here before.
https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/how- ... errari-f1/However, the most obvious ones were situations where the Ferrari was too front-limited for Leclerc's liking, or in low-downforce, low-grip conditions. As Leclerc has admitted, his on-the-edge qualifying approach can let him down in such conditions.
"It's not one of my strengths, qualifying on very low-grip tracks," said Leclerc after qualifying 0.319s behind Sainz in Mexico, a track where cars run in high-downforce configuration but with low downforce levels thanks to the reduced air density at altitude.
"I tend to push quite a lot in qualifying and in Monza and here [Mexico] I struggle quite a lot with that. You slide a lot because there is very low grip. You've just got to be a little bit less on the limit on those tracks and I struggle a bit more to do that."
Sainz, by comparison, thrives in such conditions. That was obvious early in their partnership when Sainz outqualified Leclerc at the 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix at a windy Portimao. This made the partnership work well as Sainz's skillset often filled in effectively for the occasions when Leclerc wasn't at his best. In that regard, it was arguably the best-balanced driver pairing in F1.
We don't know that. Hamilton isn't a benchmark anymore. Leclerc's qualy time in Mexico this year (1.15.848) was only 1 tenth faster than Sainz's pole time from last year (1.15.946). Perhaps Sainz would have gone faster this year. Leclerc also crashed in low grip conditions of qualifying in Baku. He struggled in low grip conditions in Silverstone, spun the car in Las Vegas qualifying, and crashed the car on the warmup lap in rain before the Miami sprint when his teammate did not.
Wild takes. Max himself rated him highly in the wet after brazil last here.AR3-GP wrote:We don't know that. Hamilton isn't a benchmark anymore. Leclerc's qualy time in Mexico this year (1.15.848) was only 1 tenth faster than Sainz's pole time from last year (1.15.946). Perhaps Sainz would have gone faster this year. Leclerc also crashed in low grip conditions of qualifying in Baku. He struggled in low grip conditions in Silverstone, spun the car in Las Vegas qualifying, and crashed the car on the warmup lap in rain before the Miami sprint when his teammate did not.