F1: Verstappen bored; Horner again accused Ferrari

Max Verstappen felt that he would not compete for the rest of his life in Belgium (Photo: AFP)

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Lewis hamilton He drove the No. 44 Mercedes from pole position to the finish line without much excitement, eventually winning his 89th F1 victory at the Belgian Grand Prix. Perhaps the single toughest moment of the race was the exit of the six-time world champion, when for a moment he seemed to lose first place, but he feels that luck has run out on his side.

“We were lucky today because we had a headwind at turn five for the last few years. This weekend, however, there was a tailwind, which helped me a lot to keep Valtteri behind me. Hamilton recalled. – It was very close to me at first and my wheels spun a bit too, forcing me to change gears. In fact, it was quite exciting. My wheels were a little bit locked when I came out of each corner, but the goal was to stay ahead and build an advantage over the car behind me. This time things worked out for me and my mistake, or rather my difficulty with the tires, was not a problem. But it was a stressful time for the competition. “

From second place Valtteri Bottas He was hoping to catch up with Lewis Hamilton at first, but in the end he couldn’t really compete with his teammate, who also drove flawlessly all weekend. The Finnish driver knows that he was not affected by any problems in the race, but could not fight for the victory.

“I would have had a good chance of overtaking at the beginning, but Lewis shaped things well. He wasn’t too fast coming out of every corner, but he still couldn’t catch him. Same thing happened when restarting, I just couldn’t help it on the straights. As Lewis was driving without problems, I was in a difficult position. His performance was perfect today and yesterday, but at least my weekend went smoothly. We didn’t have any major problems, but I really want those wins now! Bottas said.

It is not exactly beyond the career of his life. Max Verstappen, he couldn’t really keep up with the Mercedes, so he was bored for most of the race. He also had to protect the tires from his hair, which made sure he couldn’t catch any of the Mercedes.

“This race was pretty boring, nothing exciting happened Verstappen thinks. – I couldn’t really keep up with the Mercedes, so for me the race was about driving the car to its destination. I removed it in the last about eight nails to protect the first tires. I didn’t really enjoy the race. The medium tires didn’t have good grip, and the hard ones first tried to put pressure on Valtteri but then told him to pick up the pace, which I couldn’t keep up. This is how he drove alone. ”

Ferrari closed the spa race without a point. Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel he suffered all weekend, but according to the latter, no one could expect a miracle from them. The four-time world champion encourages his team to be calm and cohesive and is already focusing on the upcoming competitions in Italy.

“The fact is, we weren’t fast enough Vettel admitted. – This is very difficult at the moment and we cannot think of miracles. You could do a few tenths, but it was very difficult to get the right pace in the race, in fact, all weekend. We need to make sure we stay calm and don’t get frustrated, as it leads nowhere anyway. We learned a lot this weekend, we have to stay strong and united to perform to the best of our ability. The next two races will be important for our team and we need to focus on that now. But we must remain realistic, because we cannot expect miracles. “

Ferrari’s suffering, of course, brought up a problem that arose after winter testing. It so happened that rivals last year realized that Ferrari might be cheating their recourse, but the International Automobile Federation (FIA) did not reveal the result after its investigation and whether Ferrari used a regular solution. You can read more about it here!

Looking at the performance of the Maranellos this year, many believe that Ferrari was sometimes very fast last year due to an irregular appeal, which Chistian Horner, The Red Bull team boss also attracted attention after the Belgian GP.

“Everyone can draw their own conclusions about Ferrari’s current performance. Last year, we could have won a few races if they hadn’t opted for a completely different engine, which had a huge impact on their performance last year. They are in a pretty tough spot right now and I think they have been targeting the wrong areas in recent years. That is why they are now suffering in those parts that were included in that particular agreement. Currently Mercedes is clearly the fastest, Honda and Renault are pretty close depending on the track and conditions. Ferrari follows them at the end of the line ”. Horner thinks.