Verstappen crash a major reason for close title fight according to Honda
Red Bull Content Pool
F1 News
- GPblog.com
In the first half of the Formula 1 season Max Verstappen was supreme. The Dutchman was leading comfortably by 33 points over Lewis Hamilton, when that came to an abrupt end at the British Grand Prix. According to Honda chief Masashi Yamamoto, Verstappen's accident at Silverstone was the main reason why the title race was so close in the end.
Of course, Silverstone wasn't the only place where Red Bull Racing were let down. The same goes for the races in Baku and Hungary, but Hamilton wasn't able to maximise his results like he did at Silverstone. Verstappen also lost a brand new Honda engine in the accident, making a grid penalty later in the season inevitable.
Silverstone reason for close finale
"I think the accident at the British Grand Prix was one of the reasons why this season was so close," Yamamoto explains in conversation with the Japanese Autosportweb. According to the Honda general manager, Red Bull and Mercedes were on different strategies and both cars were fast in different sectors of the circuit. For Red Bull it was sector three, after Copse corner, and for Mercedes it was sector one.
For Verstappen, it was therefore crucial to defend his pole position all the way to that corner, while Hamilton had to make sure he passed him before that point. He couldn't do that, and so he attempted an overtake at Copse itself, with all the consequences.
"From the start of the race Lewis was pushing and Max knew he was faster after turn nine [Copse corner], so he managed to stay ahead until turn nine," Yamamoto continued. At that point, however, things went wrong. "The car was destroyed and we lost a power unit, so we had to change our strategy for the whole season," he explains.