The lessons from Spielberg: Verstappen's dominance, Ferrari's standstill

Who is supposed to stop this Max Verstappen? Three victories in the Formula 1 three-pack in France and Austria, five Red Bull successes in a row - the drinks giant's team is as dominant as it was when Sebastian Vettel was world champion. Now World Cup leader Verstappen wants to overtake the long-time champion at Lewis Hamilton's home game in Silverstone. The title hunter is getting stronger and stronger After his double success in Austria, Verstappen himself was amazed. “I didn't expect it to be so dominant. I was always faster than the others. There aren’t that many of these races every year, which is of course great,” enthused the Dutchman.

Again the celebrated winner: Max Verstappen. © APA/afp / JOE KLAMAR

Thanks to his overwhelming dominance, the 23-year-old was even able to afford an additional pit stop on Sunday. “The confidence with which Max achieves these victories is refreshing,” praised Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko and rejoiced: “There is no track where we have to be afraid.” Hamilton loses touch Even before the race, the defending champion had declared a victory against Verstappen to be impossible. But the series world champion hasn't been left behind like this for a long time. “You have such incredible strength,” said the Brit after finishing fourth about Mercedes opponents Red Bull. With a damaged car, the 36-year-old continued to lose ground and is now 32 points behind Verstappen. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, however, did not want to talk about giving up with 14 rounds of the season still remaining: “We are behind, we have the worse package, but the championship is far from finished.” The race judges take action Controversial time penalties during the race, mass citations for drivers after the checkered flag: the race stewards interpreted the rules quite meticulously. It was particularly hard on Lando Norris and Sergio Perez, who were given penalty seconds because of their uncompromising defensive line and thus lost World Cup points. McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl said the verdict against his driver Norris was “completely incomprehensible”. Many others in the paddock also viewed the rule enforcers' interventions as unnecessary.

Ferrari is not making any progress After the disastrous race weekend in France, Ferrari recorded a slight upward trend in Spielberg, but still failed to make a clear leap forward. Carlos Sainz took fifth and sixth place, while teammate Charles Leclerc was seventh and eighth. What is particularly noticeable is that the Ferrari drivers are keeping up well in the race, but in qualifying they are still clearly lacking in the fight against time. While Leclerc hardly brings in any profits with his impulsive driving style, the much calmer and more consistent Sainz at least gives reason for hope. “We have been working for a year and a half to close the gap to the top. We are all giving 200%, but at the moment the situation is just like that,” analyzed Leclerc after the race on Sunday.

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The lessons from Spielberg: Verstappen's dominance, Ferrari's standstill

Max Verstappen and Red Bull are currently the measure of all things in Formula 1. After the racing team's five victories in a row, Lewis Hamilton is also threatened with a loss at the feel-good date in Silverstone. The lessons from the Spielberg race.

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