Like a curse for Vettel, for the first time this season Mercedes are not victorious, and then Ferrari screws up his race for him. Honda and Verstappen celebrate their first wins together with Red Bull Racing.
But two youngsters jumped into the breach and finally gave the fans a thrilling race again after the boredom of Paul Ricard. “That’s what you wanted,” says Hamilton, appreciative of the controversial manoeuvre, even though he struggled with the overheating problems of the Mercedes engine and the missed fifth victory in a row. The Brit has great respect for “Mad Max” Verstappen despite what ex-team mate Nico Rosberg said yesterday on the subject, declaring they “got this wrong”.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff would also have liked to break the McLaren record of 1988, the eleven victories in a row was nearly surpassed, but the Austrian claimed to be happy for the fans:
“It’s great to watch the boys in the front race as they compete in the front.
“They didn’t give anything away until the last lap – to discuss this controversy, which is always good. A bad day for us, but a great day for Formula 1.”
Could there be another reason why Wolff was praising Verstappen? Bild in Germany certainly think so.
The victory in Austria for Verstappen certainly puts up his market value again, and some media outlets have before discussed the recently reported ‘performance clause’ that could enable Max to leave Red Bull should the team and Honda not provide a good enough car. TJ13 reported on this some time ago theorising that Verstappen could end leaving by end of 2019.
It appears there could be more details on this clause according to Bild. If he doesn’t have a good chance of winning the World Championship race before the summer break, he can leave after this season.
Bild surmises that Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has a good relationship with Max and his father Jos and the contract of Valtteri Bottas, team mate of World Champion Lewis Hamilton, expires at the end of the season.
“Our job is to provide Max with a car that can win. Everything else is just your topic.” retorts Helmut Marko to the suggestion.
Would you like to see Verstappen move to Mercedes? Comment below.
I would rather see him at Ferrari next year, Vettel back to his old team for 1 last run
Agree with you. Verstappen at Ferrari would be fart more fun and games because Max would be stifled by Mercedes and Lewis (in spite of his generous words) would soon become fed up with Verstappen and his Dutch lobby group pushing for a No. 1 role. Wolff would leave the team if Verstappen’s crew started to agitate behind the scenes.
Unlikely. Ferrari have invested too much in Leclerc, and his manager, Todt’s son, would never let it happen. Ferrari’s wet dream in 2 or 3 years is Leclerc and Schumacher. Who incidentally is also managed by Todt’s son.
Max and Charles at Ferrari, a bit of rivalry 😀 wishful thinking but it would be my dream team
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cavallinorampantef1 is right.
Mattia Binotto & Todt management have no interest in Max
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