Max Verstappen’s dominating run in 2023 may finally come to an end this weekend after Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton snatched pole position from the Dutchman ahead of the Hungarian GP on Saturday. The Red Bull driver interestingly lost out on P1 just a day after he slammed the new qualifying format. With Hamilton registering his first pole position in F1 since 2021, the Brit has made Verstappen eat his words.
Heading into qualifying, both Verstappen and Hamilton raised concerns regarding the new format. The arch-rivals made the same point, by stating how this qualifying format robbed the fans who had gathered in the grandstands to see cars out on track.
Verstappen, in particular, explained that he deliberately limited his number of laps in free practice because he “didn’t want to waste too many sets of tires“. This was so that he could maximize his qualifying performances. However, after having had a look at Hamilton‘s storming lap during the session on Saturday, the new format seems to have changed Verstappen’s mind.
Hamilton forces Verstappen to change his view on the qualifying format
For the longest of times, Max Verstappen has been explaining how he would love to see the teams closer, so that he can have more competitive racing. Now that the likes of Hamilton and Lando Norris are closer, he is adamant that the new format has a huge role to play in this.
When asked about the same, he said during his post-qualifying press conference, “For sure, for everyone it looks good right. I am just not happy with how my qualifying went because of the balance. That has nothing to do with the gap to other teams. But for sure, I think this qualifying was very exciting because every session you didn’t know who was going to be quickest right. I think that’s a good thing“.
There were several other surprises with this particular format too, with Mercedes’ George Russell getting knocked out of Q1. Then, to the dismay of the Tifosi, Carlos Sainz managed only an underwhelming P11 spot before the race. However, the most shocking result came in the form of Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu finishing fifth. The Chinese driver will start the race from P5, ahead of Charles Leclerc.
It was not just Guanyu who looked impressive, but also Valtteri Bottas in the other Alfa Romeo as he qualified seventh on the grid for the main race. Meanwhile, despite many teams, including Mercedes in particular, benefitting from this format, Toto Wolff said that he is still not a fan of it.
Toto Wolff slams “weird” qualifying format despite Lewis Hamilton grabbing pole
Soon after Lewis Hamilton grabbed his first pole position of the season, Toto Wolff expressed his concerns regarding the new qualifying format. The Austrian believes that this format is “weird” as none of the teams know where they stand because of the differences in performance with different tire compounds.
He then explained (as quoted by gpfans.com) how Mercedes was afraid of their own performance because of having to use different tire compounds. Wolff believes that the Silver Arrows were very poor on the medium compound tires but had some fantastic pace on the softs.
Considering that Mercedes had such a drastic difference in pace between the softs and the mediums, they will need to be at the top of their strategy game if Hamilton is to keep Max Verstappen behind him in the main race. And if they do, then Mercedes could be the first team other than Red Bull to win a Grand Prix in 2023 and snap the latter’s incredible winning streak.
