General
Why Max Verstappen NEEDS to win the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Imola
Three races, two DNF’s - Max Verstappen’s defence of his world title hasn’t started well. Of course, he won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, but that will come as little solace to the man currently in sixth place in the Drivers’ Championship. A little look through the history books will show you that only eight drivers in the history of Formula 1 have ever won the title after failing to finish at least two of the opening three races.
Given the fact the sport has taken place for over 70 years, it doesn’t look great for Verstappen. The last driver to retire twice in the opening three races of the season and still win the title was Mika Hakkinen way back in 1999. The likes of Senna, Piquet, Prost, Lauda and Hunt are among those to have overcome such a difficult start and still be victorious come the end of the season, so Verstappen will have to emulate the very best if he wants to defend his title.
Furthermore, in the past seven seasons, the driver who has won the title has never retired more than twice during the year. You have to go all the way back to Michael Schumacher in 2000 to find a title-winning driver to retire four times across the season.
With Verstappen already on two DNF’s, he’s dangerously close to going into unknown territory and with the way F1 now scores points, not scoring any in a race is extremely costly.
Red Bull Issues
To add to this, Red Bull clearly have reliability problems, so Verstappen will be fearful of yet more retirements as the season progresses. As history shows, that doesn’t favour a potential title-winning driver. So, the aim for Verstappen is simple. Win at Imola, or potentially drop out of the title conversation already. The pressure is on, how will he cope?