Verstappen isolated in tactical jousting with Mercedes drivers

Max Verstappen took the first pole position of the year with a difference of almost four tenths of a second. Red Bull celebrated, but only on one side of the pit box. After all, Sergio Perez did not give home in his first qualification for Red Bull. He went out in Q2, so today there are nine other cars between those of Verstappen and Perez.

That has not escaped Valtteri Bottas and neither has Red Bull team boss Christian Horner. Both speak of a strategic advantage for Mercedes, because that team has two irons in the fire with Lewis Hamilton and Bottas. In fact, only one of the two Mercedes drivers has to come ahead of Verstappen at any time, to then push the pace of the Red Bull driver and turn the odds.

In other words: Verstappen is on his own, again. Can Perez be blamed for that? At least he blamed himself. After one poor performance, however, you can speak of an incident, it is only unfortunate that it immediately happened in the first weekend. However, if Verstappen can keep the lead right from the start and build up a margin, nothing needs to be wrong.

Could Pierre Gasly be the joker in P5 with a world start and take over the role that Red Bull had attributed to Perez? You are free to ask, but if Christian Horner said time and again what he said last year about AlphaTauri becoming more independent, the Frenchman owes Red Bull nothing.

If any form of back support is not provided for Verstappen, then he only has his own pit stop strategy to play with. The fact that both he and both Mercedes start on the medium tires ensures a level playing field when the lights go out, but after that the number of options for the three is fairly limited.

The fastest option, according to the Italians, is a two-stopper (medium-medium-hard). Verstappen is the only one who can follow that route, as the Mercedes men no longer have a new set of medium tires at their disposal (see overview below).

However, they have a set of hard tires left and will probably ride two stints on hard tires. If the somewhat grumpy Mercedes eats tires, that is no superfluous luxury. With the balance in the RB16B, Verstappen should have no problems with a somewhat ‘softer’ strategy.

According to Pirelli, every other ‘fast’ strategy assumes a start on soft tires, options that lend themselves to the boys in the top ten. And Verstappen himself? He says he does not need Perez’s back support as long as the car is good: “In that case I can easily do it myself.”

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