"There's no shame in having only Mercedes above"
- GPblog.com
Max Verstappen has raced his own sort of season in 2020, because he has had virtually no direct rivals. Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas are far too fast for the Red Bull Racing driver but he is comfortably above the rest of the field. According to The Race editor Scott Mitchell, Verstappen deserves more than what his stats show.
Hardly any direct competition
Verstappen has hardly had to look back, Sergio Perez is currently fourth and can only overtake Verstappen if he wins all three races and Verstappen scores no more than five points. With the exception of Turkey, the Dutchman has managed to finish on the podium every race he finished.
"There's no shame in having only Mercedes above you and Verstappen has comfortably been the only attacker of that team in 2020. But he deserves more than what is being shown after his performance," said Mitchell in a YouTube video of The Race.
Third wheel
Verstappen himself said after Turkey that it feels like being the third wheel at a dinner party when he is on the podium with the two Mercedes. "It's not very nice. I'd rather have the nice dinner myself instead of being the third wheel," said Verstappen.