In a season that last winter seemed to be destined to become a long and undisputed catwalk for Lewis Hamilton towards the conquest of the eighth world title of his career, the unexpected obstacle is called Max Verstappen. The Dutchman of Red Bull, with a car that has finally reached full competition since the first races, immediately questioned the dominance of the home champion Mercedes, who since the time of Nico Rosberg had not found an opponent capable of putting him like this. much under pressure, even more than what Sebastian Vettel did with Ferrari in 2017-2018.
In several races of this 2021, the Englishman appeared less accurate than in the past. Driving errors were greater and followed one another throughout the entire span of races so far. They have not always been decisive for the final outcome, given that on several occasions Hamilton himself or his team have been able to put a piece on it. However, several insiders have noted the greater ‘fallibility’ of the reigning world champion in comparison to his almost perfect performance in recent years. The former Scottish driver highlighted this greater tendency to make mistakes David Coulthard, which speaking to Channel 4 blamed these imperfections precisely to the pressure Verstappen put on the 36-year-old Mercedes.
“He’s committed a significant amount of minor accidents and got away with it – commented the former Williams, McLaren and Red Bull standard bearer – whether it is ending up long in the gravel at Imola, touching the barriers and then managing to reverse, or various other episodes. More recently, for example, when he hit the pit wall in Russia, where he suffered minimal damage to the car. This is the remarkable thing. You have never seen him really wrong in a massive way. It was a lot of small accidents, but they show that he is under pressure“ concluded Coulthard.