Natalie Pinkham and Tom Clarkson, presenters for Sky Sports F1 and F1 respectively, share their insights on why Formula One fans should embrace Max Verstappen’s current dominance in the sport. The two-time world champion from Red Bull Racing is on the verge of securing his third Formula One title, holding a commanding 145-point lead over his teammate, Sergio Perez. This lead is equivalent to nearly six race wins with eight races remaining in the season. Max’s recent achievement of winning ten consecutive races has also set a new Formula One record, making him a historic figure in the sport.
In their discussions on the F1 Nation Podcast on September 12th, 2023, both presenters express their admiration for Max, who has accumulated 47 race wins in his career so far.
Natalie Pinkham : “First of all, fantastic to see Max take that 10th consecutive win. Now I know many of you might be screaming at your speakers and your listening devices, oh no, it’s so boring, it’s so frustrating to come into Formula One knowing who’s going to win the race. But I think what you need to do is be more accepting of it and say, okay, once you’re over the predictability plateau and you recognize that, okay, there is a clear favorite coming into every race weekend, then you can sit back and enjoy the fact you are witnessing sporting history being written. And that in itself is a nice shift in mindset.”
“And then you recognize that actually the competition’s behind it. And didn’t we get plenty of that? Particularly Carlos Sainz has come out of the blocks, FP1, in scintillating form and to put it on pole in front of the adoring Tafosi, that was the story. That was a massive story. Now, Max hasn’t put a foot wrong in terms of his race craft, pretty much all season. Obviously, he’s lost two of the races to Checo, but you’d have to say on both of those occasions, he had issues beyond his control. So there was a sense of inevitability about when Max would overtake Carlos. But to see Carlos defend so valiantly as well was brilliant.”
Tom Clarkson : “I mean, I’m relishing seeing Max Verstappen do his thing now, and I’ve got to the point where I want to see how far they can get. Because, as you say, it’s sporting history. He’s done ten in a row. The team has won, you know, every single race this year. And, you know, I was a bit nervous about Monza, thinking back to 1988. In fact, I can talk to Gerhard Berger about this later in the pod. But, you know, was Max going to trip over somebody? Because it was real wheel-to-wheel racing at Monza. You know, it took him 12 laps to get past Carlos Sainz, and for the first five or so, Carlos was starting to think that he might have the measure of Max. So the Ferrari was genuinely quick.”
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