Windsor: 'Where was Verstappen during the race?'
- GPblog.com
Peter Windsor blames Ferrari for throwing away the win in Monaco but praises Carlos Sainz for his second place and victory over Charles Leclerc, who was faster all weekend. Then he wonders, "Where was Max Verstappen this weekend?
Sainz beat his teammate partly due to a blunder by the team. Ferrari gave up Leclerc's track position after Sainz's stop, so they lost the initiative in the race. The Spaniard then drove the race cleanly and maximized with a P2. Windsor praised Sainz for beating his stronger teammate and then paused to consider Sergio Perez and Verstappen. After all, Perez also beat his usually stronger teammate in Monaco.
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"Where was Max in that race?" the Brit wonders in a YouTube video. "He should have been the guy who went from Intermediates to the slicks. Or just the one who had gone to the Intermediates very quickly and driven a fairly long stint on them. He went for the middle and wasn't actually in a position to improve track position. Completely bizarre. My compliments to all the drivers who did the same as Sainz."
According to Windsor, there were only two good options; either drive long on the wets or go to the Intermediates early. Since Verstappen did neither, the F1 analyst is not particularly impressed with the championship leader's race. Perez's strategy did work out well. On that, Windsor says the Mexican was lucky with his position on the track. Lewis Hamilton copied Perez's strategy (with a lap delay), but did not benefit from the winning strategy because he was stuck in traffic.