© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
Former F1 team manager Peter Windsor says at the Mexican Grand Prix Max Verstappen knew “the real threat was going to be potentially Lewis Hamilton on the medium tyres”.
After qualifying in P6 for the Mexican Grand Prix, in the race Lewis Hamilton managed to finish in P2, behind Max Verstappen.
Mercedes put the Briton on a bold strategy which required him to cover half of race distance on medium tyres, while everybody around him was on hards, and his brilliant drive made that gambit work.
On his YouTube channel, former F1 team manager Peter Windsor said Max Verstappen was aware that Lewis was the only real threat to him in the race.
“Max Verstappen started on the hard tyre and as it happened he had the two Ferraris behind him but they were never in a position to challenge,” the Briton said.
“He made a great start, by the time he came out of Turn 1 he was already three or four lengths ahead of Charles Leclerc, and he just pulled away relatively quickly because in his mind the real threat was going to be potentially Lewis Hamilton on the medium tyres.”
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In the last lap of the race, Lewis also picked up a point for fastest lap, and Windsor believes this “irritated” Verstappen.
“That would have irritated Max a bit because he always loves to set fastest lap and at that point he had it. And Lewis set it on the last lap.
“That brought a smile obviously to everybody’s face in the Mercedes garage and certainly Lewis enjoyed that.”
Windsor also asked the question what would have happened had Lewis not been conserving his tyres for the last 12 laps of the race.
“If Lewis had known that the tyres were going to last to the point where he could do a 21.3 on the last lap, how much quicker would he have driven?
“How much more would he have pushed the tyres over the previous 12 laps?” he concluded.
