Matthias Lauda, the eldest son of three-time world champion Niki Lauda, drove in endurance racing until 2020 and now works as an expert with the Austrian television channel ServusTV. He shared his predictions for the upcoming Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix with the Österreich newspaper…
Matthias Lauda: “This weekend is not to be missed as it is the next stage of the World Championship after a very interesting race in Miami. McLaren and Ferrari are getting closer to Red Bull Racing, which makes life difficult for Max Verstappen.
Lando Norris won that race and the first win is always the hardest. But now that the pressure is much less, everything becomes a little easier for him. Moreover, McLaren is certainly making progress. The team looked quite confident even in Shanghai, although they didn’t particularly like the Chinese track.
But if all goes well for Red Bull Racing, it won’t be easy to beat Max this weekend. However, it is not only the champion team that is preparing technical innovations for the Imola stage; I also expect Ferrari to perform very well.
But Mercedes cannot overcome the drop in results, and although their cars have the same powerplants as the cars they supply to McLaren, the MCL38 chassis works better, is more efficient and generates more downforce, and in Formula 1 it is most important.
If my father were still working for the Mercedes team, he would continue to demand that all his employees get to the bottom of the problems. He didn’t give up and tried to figure everything out down to the last detail.
May 20 marks five years since he passed away, but he is always with me. I can listen to a song related to his memory, or just think about how he built his life. I’m not getting any younger either, and I have the feeling that as I get older, many of his character traits are becoming more and more apparent in me.”
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.