Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc seemed to be going head-to-head this season as to which driver should be crowned World Champion. After nine races, however, the difference is already 49 points, giving the Dutchman a comfortable lead over his rival. Despite this, Bernie Ecclestone does not think the excitement has gone away this season.
The former Formula One boss sees Red Bull Racing in a comfortable position this season. The team's lead in the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships is now so large that it is possible for them to drop a stitch. Ecclestone does not rule out that this will actually happen.
In doing so, he points to Mercedes which may just play an important role in bringing the excitement back. "It depends on how Mercedes behave. If they get lucky again and steal a few points from Red Bull and Ferrari performs well again at the same time, then suddenly the gap changes," Ecclestone stated in conversation with RTL Deutschland.
Ecclestone expects Verstappen to be World Champion
At the same time Ecclestone knows that Verstappen has the best chances to win his second world title. He would therefore put his money on Verstappen winning first place. "He will win the championship, probably," he said.
Anything other than winning the title for Max would be a surprise. I would have liked Ferrari to put up more serious resistance, to have as much of an exciting season as possible, but I’m not quite sure that’s going to happen.
We still have plenty of racing to go.
The only thing holding Ferrari back will probably be the plethora of strategic errors they make during the race.
I wouldn't write them off just yet. Both teams seem quite equal in speed, with fairly equal reliability problems. If it stays that way the rest of the season it will come down to the drivers, in that aspect Red Bull has the edge. Max has had years of scrapping from behind to win. Charles hasn't been through much of fighting at the sharp end, and really hasn't been in a championship battle.
It may still be interesting yet
Do shut up, Bernie. You just can't fade and die away gracefully
Yip I wouldn't disagree, the Redbull rocketship is too dominate this season.
Yes!! Max that makes it a Rocket Red-Bull .....Fantastic hey?
2 Red-Bull drivers (Max=6 wins) (Pérez=1 win)
Max's 2nd world title on the way...........Max the Rocket!
Red Bull rocketship lost 6 pole positions to Ferrari this year, few times out qualified by both Ferrari’s. But if you combine 2014,2015,2016,2020 seasons together Mercedes lost 5 pole positions to the rest of the grid and won all others, 71 to be precise. So RB lost more pole positions in one half of the season then Mercedes in 4 full season.
Talking about true rocketship mate
The car was never the issue with Redbull not having more pole positions, I would think a Redbull fan would reflect on max saying the car was not to his liking the first couple races . So I wouldn't read much into that mate.
Mercedes did have a brilliant car with a brilliant driver hence you have the poles and the wins .
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