Wouter wrote: ↑16 Jul 2024, 10:19
Just_a_fan wrote: ↑16 Jul 2024, 10:05
The increase in competitiveness amongst other teams plays in to Max's hands anyway. And the competitiveness within those teams helps him doubly so. With 2/3 other teams able to win, and each having 2 drivers that are able to compete,
Max is sitting pretty with no one in his garage to take points away from him.
The others squabble over each other and Max knows he's getting the most points the car is able to gain at any given track. He doesn't even need to be second each race. A podium would do it as no one else is likely to win more than a few races going forward.
.
You're forgetting something very important!
All those teams drive two cars that can help each other and counter Max with their strategy,
but RBR drives one car so Max has no one to help him.
Not forgetting that, but Max + the car are good enough to podium every race on merit. The other teams have to balance their driver politics and positions on the day to maximise team results. Look at Silverstone - McLaren could have had 2 drivers on the podium but left Oscar to the wolves (and messed up the final tyre call anyway). Red Bull can focus all of their strategy energy on Max (assuming Sergio is now a spent force and won't factor in to any of the races going forward). So Max should be able to get prime strategy calls at each race where the other teams are always going to be favouring one or other driver.
Say McLaren are quickest in Hungary with Red Bull second quickest. That should be a McLaren 1-2, RBR 3. But the leading McLaren will get preferential strategy which opens up a window for Max, so it could end up being McLaren 1-3, RBR 2.
Throw in, say Mercedes (now they appear to be competitive (but who really knows?)) and they will also be favouring their leading driver in each race. Which means the other will get a less than optimal strategy.
Do that over several races and it's likely that the McLaren drivers and the Mercedes drivers will each be taking points off their team mates (and the other team). Max just needs to thread the route between squabbling team mates to gain enough points that his current points lead is sufficient. Lando needs to win every race with Max P2 for Lando to win the title. So Oscar having a good couple of races, taking a win off Lando, for example, would be enough to mess the maths.
Max just needs to remember for the rest of the season that he doesn't have to win every race, P2 or even P3 at every race is likely to be sufficient to take the title because the others will all be taking points off each other. Going for every win increases the risk of a DNF which is massively expensive in a competitive remaining half season. It's precisely the strategy that Hamilton used to good effect during his run of titles - pick the fights that matter and accept that sometimes P2 or P3 is good enough to take the title.
If you are more fortunate than others, build a larger table not a taller fence.