Pat Symonds, Formula 1’s technical director and one of the drafters of the current technical regulations, has devoted nearly half a century to motorsport, having only worked in the World Championship since the early 1980s and starting his career in the British junior series started even earlier.
It is difficult to overestimate his experience and knowledge: Symonds once worked with Ayrton Senna at Toleman, in the 90s, when the team was already called Benetton, he was Michael Schumacher’s race engineer, and the years when Fernando Alonso raced and won championships driving Renault cars, led Enstone’s engineering department.
He knew the drivers, who are usually called “great”, but when asked if Max Verstappen, the owner of two championship titles, could be included in this category, Symonds suggested not to rush.
“If we talk about the best racers, maybe they used to be in Formula 1, even before my career started,” he reasoned on Sky Sports. – I’m talking about the early days of F1 history, because those drivers were just heroes and maybe a little crazy.
As for Verstappen, it is still too early to call him a great racer, although he performed well last year. But you have to admit that his task was simplified, as the Ferrari team only performed well at the beginning of the season and clearly fell behind by the end of the year.
In fact, the competitiveness of the Scuderia was quite high in the last races of the championship, but during the season it made mistakes, also in terms of tactics, and some other things happened, so at the end of the year Max found himself is in a very favorable position.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not detracting from his racing talent – he’s doing incredibly well for his age. But I think he should be given a few more years. It’s probably worth seeing what he can do behind the wheel of a less efficient car.
Which is harder, winning with a great car at your disposal, or when you have to drive something that deserves swear words that shouldn’t be said live? From my point of view, I would like to mention the big riders who know how to get more out of the technique than it is really capable of.
When a driver outperforms his car, he can be really proud of himself.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
