The Champion’s Rage
How far away is 2023. Max Verstappen he lived his life in Monza sixth consecutive race without a win and he arrived alone sixth at the finish linefar from the battle for the top step of the podium that involves Ferrari and McLaren. The Dutchman in terms of the championship can even console himself by thinking that he has lost ‘only’ eight points to his main rival, Lando Norris, but it is clear that if the pace of his RB20 in the last eight GPs remains this fourth consecutive Drivers’ title would be seriously in danger.
Verstappen, compared to other races, tried to contain his nervousness via radio, but in the end his ‘angry’ racer nature understandably prevailed. This was noted for example after the first pit stopwhere the mechanics had problems fixing the right rear tyre, taking a full 6.2 seconds to make the stop. Verstappen let off steam punching the steering wheelbut in the second part of the race some stinging team radio calls started to arrive towards the team.
A machine to change
A few laps before the checkered flag, the reigning champion confirmed to the team how “this machine is very slow now” and shortly before in another team radio he had invited everyone to “stay awake, please. I know it’s a sh** position, but it’s important”. After the checkered flag, while the Ferrari crowd was going crazy for the masterpiece completed by Charles Leclerc, Verstappen also received Christian Horner’s apology due to the poor competitiveness of the single-seater.
“It was a great guide Max – Horner said over the radio – I’m sorry we couldn’t give you a better car this weekend“. “Yes, it was a tough race. – Verstappen’s response – everything went against us. There was no power we wanted, no pace, no pit stops. We have to work hard to change the machine”. “Yes, we will. We will.”, Horner’s laconic closing message.
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