Immediately following the Grand Prix of Qatar, Raymond Vermeulen sought out Toto Wolff. Max Verstappen‘s manager wanted to hear directly from the Mercedes’ team boss that Kimi Antonelli had not let Lando Norris pass ‘for free’ in the final stages. “This outcome is very good for the sport,” he said.
“Discount on the engines? I have no idea,” Raymond Vermeulen responds to the question of why Kimi Antonelli seemingly let Lando Norris pass so easily in the final stages. After all, it gives the British championship leader two extra World Championship points. On his way to Mercedes’ quarters, however, Raymond Vermeulen is reassured by a member of the Red Bull Racing team. According to him, Antonelli made a mistake, causing Antonelli to lose his fourth position. There was no intent, he concludes, much to the relief of Verstappen’s manager.
Joy prevails for Vermeulen, who has spent an hour and a half in the garage enjoying Red Bull’s professionalism and the racecraft of his famous client. “A mega strategy, superbly executed by the team,” is how he sums up the desert race. “You can see that we have nothing to lose, we can think and act freely. And you can see at McLaren that they are now getting a bit stuck with their papaya rules.”
‘Look,’ Vermeulen continues, ‘I get it. After the summer period, McLaren thought they had the title in the bag. And now suddenly a horror scenario is looming. It’s premature, of course, it still has to really fall our way, but we have nothing to lose. And that’s also the attitude Max adopts. You see it at the start: dedicated, all in, drove well and controlled the tires. Flawless! But that’s Max. He executes it as if it’s a computer model, does what the team says, asks what the opponent is doing, who’s on the hard tire? Max reads the entire race. He is who he is. If Max sees a gap, you shouldn’t give it to him. Because he’ll take it.’
Like the entire paddock, Vermeulen was also surprised that McLaren decided not to bring both drivers in after the safety car was deployed in lap 7. ‘I think they were afraid they would get stuck in the fastlane and thought: we’ll pull a gap on these tires and it’ll be fine. A strategy of uncertainty,’ Vermeulen believes. ‘Kind of hoping for a safety car. You know you’ll end up in traffic with 26 seconds (total time for a pit stop). It could have been much worse for them if they had come back on track behind the train with Alonso and Hadjar. This is also a strategy track, isn’t it. Overtaking is very difficult here.’
Verstappen and co are flying directly from Qatar to Abu Dhabi. Ready for the climax with Norris and Oscar Piastri. Vermeulen is looking forward to it. ‘For the sport, this denouement is very good,’ he believes. ‘Stefano (Domenicali, FOM CEO) will be pleased. And so will the people who hold the rights.’
