Verstappen and Red Bull, too late
There is a question that is repeated among F1 fans after what was seen this weekend in Singapore. Would Kimi Antonelli win the F1 World Championship if Max Verstappen had had the current car much earlier? We will never know.
The only certainty is that the 20-year-old Italian will have his first opportunity to win his first world crown in the next race, in two weeks, in Austin, with another five still to go. Of course, he will need to win, for Lewis Hamilton to be 5th at most and for his teammate George Russell to not go beyond 9th place. And if not, he will make it in the next one. It doesn’t matter, the championship is yours. That’s the reality. Red Bull has arrived late.
But it is also very true that Max Verstappen, since he debuted the aerodynamic innovations of his Red Bull two races ago in Baku, has been intractable. There, on Sunday, after an engine failure that affected him in qualifying, he was the fastest and came within a hair’s breadth of winning. And then he triumphed in Sepang and swept this weekend: he achieved the sprint pole, the sprint victory, the pole in the main classification and crushed with the victory in yesterday’s race, without giving Leclerc any options, who was 2nd.
On very different circuits, Max was the best in the last three rounds. It’s not a coincidence. The car runs very well on all types of tracks. It is not unreasonable to think that Max could fight for the six remaining wins and achieve them.
But this evolution of his car came too late. He no longer has enough time or races to dream of fighting for the crown. Even if I win them all, He is already 119 points behind Kimi with 150 at stake, but he will be able to be runner-up.
Max surpassed Leclerc in the general classification on Sunday and is now 4th, 17 points behind second, Russell, who could only have been 9th in Singapore when starting from the back due to an engine change on a track where it is very difficult to overtake. Max’s next station is Hamilton, which he already has in his sights, just 8 points away. He runner-up of Max is more than possible. In fact, he must be the favorite for it.
A clear and forceful warning for Mercedes in 2027
But above all, what seems to be clear after the improvement of Red Bull and Max is that they should be very prepared to fight for the 2027 World Cup with the evolution of its car next year. And Mercedes must resolve its doubts with the novelties presented in Sepang, which did not work there, and that Kimi brought in Singapore.
At Marina Bay, Kimi was able to improve his feelings with those new pieces on Saturday after sinking on Friday. But they still have potential to extract and doubts to clear..
This is a capital aspect for 2027. That Mercedes resolves its unknowns in the development of its car is key for next year. They must make sure that nothing is wrong with their simulations and design to be sure that they can continue to progress their concept. And something has gone wrong, you must understand why. And they know that they are obliged to improve, that the initial advantage of 2026 should no longer exist. Red Bull has arrived and they are aware that they are going to progress because they have already found the way forward. Mercedes is more than warned.
