The day after each Grand Prix, driver Jeroen Bleekemolen shares his observations about the past race weekend in an exclusive column. Who or what caught his attention, what went well, and what needs to change? This time: what many overlook after another heated battle between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.
‘Lando Norris gains ten points on Max Verstappen.’ If you only look at this one sentence, you could argue that Norris had an excellent Grand Prix weekend in Mexico. And as pleasant as it is for him to catch up in the title fight, something strikes me that I hear relatively little about. Namely, that Norris has once again dropped the ball.
Let me explain why. Look at the speed of his McLaren. In the second part of the race, he was closing in on the Ferraris at a blistering pace. And those Ferraris were really on a roll, let’s not forget that. So you can imagine how fast Norris’s car is. He said it himself: ‘I had the fastest car of the weekend.’ And then I think: Then you could have – or perhaps should have – won. He didn’t do that, so in my opinion, he didn’t make the most of such a weekend.
This is not the first time this season that McLaren has had the best car and yet failed to score points. If you look at Max Verstappen, he is far from driving the best car – that’s painfully clear – but he does manage to extract the maximum from the RB20. Even if that means a P2, P4, or P6 finish. That’s why I think Verstappen will still ‘simply’ pull through in this title fight.
His sixth-place finish in Mexico was the best he could do. But not just for that reason. It also became clear how little speed there was in the Red Bull during the race. I was shocked by that… All the more impressive that he still maximized his performance. And without those penalties? Perhaps he would have finished P4 at best. In any case, it wasn’t Max’s fault.
Speaking of which, just like in Austin, he tried to follow the rules and gain an advantage from them. Unfortunately for Max, this time he was on the wrong side of those rules. Hence the two 10-second penalties, a decision that was, by the way, correct. You can have your own opinion about it, but the problem lies in the rules themselves. Nowadays, it’s a matter of ‘racing to the apex’. Whoever is ahead at that point, is right. It misses the point.
I say: fewer rules, more racing.
And tension? It’s (again) abundant in the title fight.
Still, I maintain that Max will ultimately pull through.
