Why Verstappen should be glad Norris is his rival instead of Hamilton
General
- Ludo van Denderen
Max Verstappen may think very differently at the moment. After all, he is a pure winner, preferably dominating everyone in every Grand Prix. If he cannot do so over a longer period of time - and he even has to settle for finishing, for exmaple - then Verstappen is not in his best form. But at the same time, he is also lucky that Lando Norris is his rival in the battle for the world title and not Lewis Hamilton.
So Verstappen finished fifth this Sunday in Azerbaijan. Given his qualities, this is not the position where Verstappen belongs, but Red Bull Racing's RB20 is simply not good enough at the moment to have a shot at victories, especially if the Austrian team go in the wrong direction in terms of Verstappen's setup.
Verstappen hopeless against McLaren's car
Yet in the battle with Norris, Verstappen once again managed to do good enough damage limitation. Yes, that is the case, even though the reigning world champion started the race in Baku ten places ahead of the McLaren driver and Norris still crossed the line one position ahead of Verstappen. That was a slight disappointment for the Dutchman. But the way the McLaren car managed to fly past Verstappen already indicated that the power difference in terms of cars was once again huge and the reigning champion was out of the running in their battle, that also happened on a different set of tyres.
But Norris, not for the first time this season, failed to fully exploit his McLaren's huge advantage over Verstappen's RB20. This time, it was qualifying that prevented him from cutting the gap more to Verstappen in the standings. Whether that was down to Norris or not; the fact is that it happened to him. Similarly, the Briton already let Oscar Piastri get ahead of him at Monza, and that also happened to him earlier in Hungary.
Norris does not have the killer instinct of Hamilton and Verstappen
It has often been said, but it also became clear in Baku: Lando Norris is a good driver, but he does not have that killer instinct. In that sense, he is reminiscent of someone like Jean Alesi; an excellent driver, but - apart from one race - the Frenchman always managed to miss out on victories everywhere. But what a friendly guy Alesi was! So is Lando, and unfortunately for him at the moment, he (still) does not have what it takes.
So while Verstappen's car is certainly no longer the strongest in the field, with Lando Norris as the only serious competitor, he will just win that fourth world title. Of course, this season more teams are competing at the top, so the situation not comparable to, say, that exhilarating duel in 2021 - when Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton engaged in an epic battle for the world title. "We were always one and two for most of the races and the rest had a big gap behind. So, it's quite different. And anyway, I think these cars also race very differently compared to 2021," Verstappen said about that himself on Sunday, knowing that everyone was taking points away from each other.
But let's imagine if the aforementioned Hamilton is the one who had been chasing the Dutchman. No doubt the current Mercedes driver would have been a lot more ruthless than Norris is now. Then every chance would have been punished by the seven-time champion. Because the moment when Hamilton could compete for the top prize, something extra comes out in him. A quality that Verstappen also possesses. And Norris, therefore, does not.
This article was written in collaboration with Kada Sarkozi
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