GoKawiilAfter months of rumors surrounding his future, now we know: Four-time champion Max Verstappen is staying in the sport for the foreseeable future. The news broke on the eve of the Dutch Grand Prix, held this past weekend at Zandvoort in the Netherlands as F1 returned from its mandatory summer vacation.
Verstappen’s wasn’t the only contract news—Williams will keep both Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz, too. More than once I’ve noticed a driver having an underwhelming weekend following a freshly signed contract; in this case, all three had a weekend they’d probably rather forget. They weren’t the only ones, though. Up and down the grid, we saw friction between teammates. And there’s no one an F1 driver wants to beat more than the only other person to have the same car as they do.
Formula 1 returned from its summer break with this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix.
One of the things that sets F1 apart from most other disciplines in motorsport is the constant in-season development of the cars. A team might start the year with the best car and a commanding advantage over its rivals, but others can and will catch up. The 2009 season is a good example of this; Brawn GP started the year with at least a second a lap in hand over the rest of the grid, and Jenson Button built up a big early lead in the championship after winning five of the first six races.
Credit: Kym Illman/Getty Images Kimi Antonelli and Lando Norris dice for the lead of the Dutch Grand Prix. Kimi Antonelli and Lando Norris dice for the lead of the Dutch Grand Prix. Credit: Kym Illman/Getty Images
That was the last race he’d win all year. The team was operating on a shoestring budget and simply couldn’t afford to upgrade its car. Button’s teammate Rubens Barrichello would win two more races for Brawn that year, but by year’s end, Red Bull and McLaren had both caught up with, then eclipsed, Brawn’s pace. The following year, Brawn GP was bought by Mercedes, the money spigot turned on, and, once the hybrid era began in 2014, the championships started flowing.