F1 News

Verstappen competition must hope: 'Perhaps a bigger effect'

24 August 2022 at 12:42
Last update 24 August 2022 at 14:42
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  • GPblog.com

Max Verstappen travels to Belgium with a comfortable feeling to experience the first Grand Prix after the summer break. The Dutchman is 80 points ahead of the competition and with Red Bull Racing seems to be heading for a second world title. According to Jolyon Palmer he has the title chances in his own hands, the former Formula 1 driver writes on Formula1.com.

Verstappen started the season with his team in a rough way, but he soon found the right form. Whereas Ferrari usually continued to outperform during qualifying, the reigning world champion always managed to recover in the race on Sunday. It resulted in the wide lead he now has.

"It will take more than a monumental effort from someone else to turn this around," Palmer therefore argues. "They will need a couple of Max mistakes or Red Bull slip ups to help reduce the deficit and add some pressure, or perhaps for this new technical directive to have a bigger effect on the order than anticipated."

Teams face new porpoising rules

With the last point, Palmer points to the new rules regarding porpoising. The teams have been given new guidelines regarding the flexibility of the floor. It should help to reduce the problem, but could potentially have an effect on the performance of Red Bull, which had already solved the problems with porpoising.