Once the pre-race ceremony, glitz, and glamour for the inaugural Miami Grand Prix ended, the race provided a familiar theme–defending champion Max Verstappen came out on top in a battle with Charles Leclerc.
Courtesy Crash.Net
In four of the five races that have taken place so far in the 2022 Formula One World Championship, Verstappen and Leclerc have gone wheel-to-wheel, and apart from in the opening race of the season in Bahrain, Verstappen has taken the victory.
Verstappen passed Leclerc late in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix to take the victory; He again came out on top during the sprint race at Imola. On lap 9 In Miami, Verstappen passed Leclerc into turn one to take the lead and subsequently went on to win the race.
On each of these occasions, Leclerc has not put up much of a defence to Verstappen. There could be many reasons why. One is that Leclerc built up an early and sizable lead at the top of the World Championship, and he doesn’t need to take risks. Also, in Miami, Red Bull had a much greater top speed. With three DRS zones, it was inevitable that Verstappen would overtake Leclerc eventually, no matter what defence he put up.
Max and Lewis (photo, Planet F1)
However, as Lewis Hamilton quickly learned last season during his year-long battle with Verstappen, the Red Bull driver does not ‘play fair’ when it comes to wheel-to-wheel racing–whether defending his position or attempting an overtaking move.
Hamilton realised that the only way to come out on top was to ‘fight fire with fire,’ meaning defending and attacking as robustly as the rules allow.
But that strategy led to highly controversial incidents between the two, most notably at Silverstone, Monza, and Jeddah. However, it also led to Hamilton coming out on top on numerous occasions, most memorably in Brazil, where he came from the back of the grid in the sprint race to victory in the Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc still maintains a 19-point lead in the Drivers World Championship. But Max has significantly reduced that lead over the past two race weekends. That lead may evaporate unless Leclerc starts to put up a more vigorous and forceful defense against Verstappen.
Experience from last year’s battle with Hamilton tells us that Charles needs to start racing hard and fair to win his first World Title.
