The reason is the thin air at an altitude of more than 2000 meters. Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko on SPORT1: “We have a larger turbocharger on our Honda engine than Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault. Our drive therefore works more efficiently when the air is thinner. “
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff.
Wolff in the Daily Mail: “If we come to the last race in Abu Dhabi and both compete against each other for the title, then whoever is ahead will try something absolutely similar to what he did in the years of Senna and Prost.”
The rivalry between the two legends is one of the most discussed duels in Formula 1 history. In 1989 a collision in Suzuka made Prost the world champion, a year later Senna returned the favor in the same place and thus got the title.
It is quite normal for Wolff that there can be deliberate contact between Hamilton and Verstappen – and it will already happen in 2021: “Verstappen took Lewis out (in Monza; the editor) because he was faster. And that is absolutely understandable. We saw that with Schumacher and Villeneuve and also twice with Senna and Prost. ”So is history repeating itself?
Wolff goes verbally on black ice: “I would never give the instruction to drive into someone else, but if they go into the last race and the one ahead wins the championship, then they would drive very hard against each other.”
Advantage Hamilton: Verstappen is in a world championship fight for the first time, Hamilton already has seven world titles in the bag. “The pressure is greater for Max Verstappen,” believes ex-champion Nico Rosberg at Sky, “because he is in this situation for the first time in his career. Lewis knows that, he has already won seven titles and was a candidate for the World Championship nine or ten times in the last races of the season. “
Nevertheless, the Red Bull Dutchman is extremely nervous, notes Rosberg. “Your dream of becoming Formula 1 world champion is at stake and you don’t know if you will ever get another chance like this because the rules will change so drastically next year. So far he’s been handling it fantastic, you can’t tell that he’s under pressure, that’s unbelievable. “
Rosberg should know: he beat Hamilton in the same team in 2016 and worked for years with a mental trainer.
