Verstappen wants to keep the 1 in his Red Bull, even if his friend Leclerc is fighting for the title with him. Photo by AP / Peter Dejong
The illusion of fans Monza dyed red on the occasion of its centenary. Charles Leclerc’s pole position on Saturday 10th moved them even more. But it all ended amidst the whistles because the race ended with a yellow flag and an obvious winner in a season finale that seems already anticipated: Max Verstappen.
The Dutchman, who prevented Lewis Hamilton from securing a historic eighth title in a controversial Abu Dhabi race management decision last year, is determined to be a two-time champion of the Formula 1 after winning the last five rounds of the championship. And he could do it even when the championship resumes, on 2 October with the Singapore GP.
With 11 wins in 16 races and a difference of 116 points on Leclercwhen 164 are up for grabs in the last six dates, Verstappen could be champion if he wins on the Marina Bay street circuit, which would reach 360 points.
In that case Leclerc should finish eighth, as the worst result, to continue with the chances (he would be at 137, with 138 still to be divided). If the Red Bull driver wins in Singapore and also takes the extra point for the lap record, he would force the Monegasque to finish seventh.
The agony could also be transferred to Japan, if we take into account that Ferrari accumulates two consecutive podiums and has not dropped from sixth place for four dates. Seven days later, the chances of the defending champion at Suzuka are much higher.
Assuming that the Monza result is repeated in Singapore – the Dutch first and the Monegasque second, with a quick lap-, would have arrived there separated by 122 points. And it would be enough for Max to be second and even third, even if his rival wins that race with the lap record.
The illusion, however, is that an epic comeback by Leclerc which prevented Verstappen’s early consecration, with five races ahead with nothing interesting to contest, because Red Bull also made a significant difference in the Constructors’ Championship, where it dominates with 545 points against Ferrari’s 406 and Mercedes’s 371.
The greatest comebacks in F1 history
Although the differences weren’t as great as they are now, each race delivered fewer points and it was still possible to return to the championship at the end of the season.
According to a survey by the F1 website, the first case dates back to the dangerous F1 five decades ago. And it happened with a Ferrari driver. In 1964, John Surtees was 20 points behind Jim Clark with five races to go.. A win at the Nurburgring brought him closer, but his retirement in Austria threatened to put him out of the title contention.
However, the victory against the fans at Monza, plus second places in the United States and Mexico, together with the help of teammate Lorenzo Bandini, won the Surtees championship for one point only on Graham Hill.
A decade later, in 1976 the champion was James Hunt, despite being 17 points behind Niki Laudawhose terrible Ferrari accident at the Nurburgring seemed to throw him away.
However, a few weeks after the last treatment in hospital for burns, the Austrian returned to Monza and the definition was stretched until the last date, in Japan. Over there, in the midst of a storm, Lauda decided to retire due to the insecurity that the race represented, while the Briton competed with his McLaren thus managing to win his world title for just one point ahead.
Six years later, in 1982, Keke Rosberg was racing from behind in the championship, father of another champion like the German Nico, whose guide had passed from Alain Prost to Didier Pironi, from whom he was to 16 points with five games to play.
However, a terrible accident at Hockenheim changed everything and Pironi suffered career-ending injuries. John Watson, then second in the league, did not score in Germany, but Rosberg did, and the naturalized Finn followed him with a second place in Austria (0.05 seconds behind winner Elio de Angelis) to overtake Watson in the standings. .
A win for Rosberg at the Swiss Grand Prix, his only win of the season, gave him a three-point lead, but failing to score points in Italy, the definition extended to the last GP. In Las Vegas, Watson’s McLaren was second, but Keke reached fifth place to give Williams the title.
The following year, it was Nelson Piquet who cut the 16 points that separated him from the commandtook advantage of the reliability problems of Alain Prost’s Renault and was champion for the second time in his career (he would still have the 1987 title). In 1986, meanwhile, the roles were reversed and it was the Frenchman who celebrated despite being 11 points behind with just two races to go.
The cases of the new millennium
Following Michael Schumacher’s success, Ferrari returned to claim the title in 2007 through Kimi Raikkonen, despite the Finn being 17 points down that season with two races to play. The mission was not impossible because Kimi scored the 20 possible points and the internal fight at McLaren between Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso favored him.
After the Japanese Grand Prix, it was Hamilton who led 12 points clear of team-mate Alonso and another five over Raikkonen. But a dramatic retreat of the Englishman in China (when he crashed into the garage door with worn intermediate tires) changed the situation. Still seven points below, Raikkonen won again in Brazil and Hamilton had to settle for seventh place and Alonso third, which left them both as an escort a point behind the champion.
Although in the following decade Sebastian Vettel marked absolute domination with his Red Bull, in two of his four titles he was not the favorite. It was 2010 and 2012 when the German was behind in the league.
In the first the favorite was Alonso and his Ferrari; even though he was 31 points down with six games to go and had to wait until the last test, in Abu Dhabi, where he won the race and had to wait until Alonso crossed the line in seventh place to claim a four-point crown over the Spaniard.
Two years after, the distance to the top was 39 points with seven races remaining. Alonso even seemed destined for a third championship given Vettel’s retirement in Italy. But when Hamilton’s gearbox failed in Singapore, the German inherited the victory and in Japan Alonso favored him by retiring on the first lap. With the victories in Korea and also in India, Seb took the lead by 13 points, which he maintained until the end.
The last time there was a comeback in F1 was in 2017 and the star was Hamiltonwho was 14 points behind with nine games to play.
In the first phase of the season, the domain belonged to Vettel and Ferrari was thrilled to win again. In the end, however, everything went wrong for the German, who suffered two retirements in three races, including a collision with team-mate Raikkonen and Verstappen in Singapore. From there, Hamilton went to glory, eventually finishing 46 points clear.
Source: Clarin
