Damon Hill believes that despite Max Verstappen’s lead in the individual championship, his confrontation with Lando Norris will only become more intense in the second half of the season, although it is still difficult to overtake the Dutchman.
“I think Max has been a bit upset lately,” the 1996 world champion said on the F1 Nation podcast. “He was critical of the team because he has to put in a lot more effort now than he has in the last two years and he wants Red Bull to do something extra as well.
I think it will be difficult for him to defend his title this year, but I have no doubt that Red Bull is able to make the RB20 at least a little bit faster. Opponents will keep putting pressure on Max until the end of the season, although it will still be difficult to overtake him.
The closest pursuer, Lando Norris, is 78 points behind, but in Hungary McLaren for some reason did not allow him to score another seven, but everyone wants to see intense competition for the championship win. If he had scored another seven points then, he would have been much closer to Max.
It is true that Lando has lost a lot of points recently due to his poor starts, but if he and his team can solve this problem, his battle with Max will only get more intense. However, it is possible that Norris will make some mistakes due to the pressure exerted on him by his partner Oscar Piastri, who won the race in Hungary.
Oscar is doing better and although I think Lando is still a bit faster, he can’t feel comfortable knowing he’s only a tenth or less ahead of his teammate in qualifying.
But if Norris ultimately loses the title and only loses a few points to Verstappen, McLaren will involuntarily remember the Hungarian Grand Prix and wonder why they let Piastri win?
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.
