With Daniel Ricciardo snatching the fastest lap away from Lando Norris at the end of the Singapore GP, the championship is left in a tricky situation. Max Verstappen will win the championship if he finishes second in all the remaining races including the sprints.
In such a scenario, even if Norris wins every race along with the fastest lap bonus, he won’t be winning the championship. However, Nico Rosberg suggests that it’s impossible for the Dutchman to achieve this feat.
On the Sky Sports F1 podcast, Rosberg said, “Lando can seriously win all the races and he’s going to get Oscar’s help at some point. For Max to finish second in all the remaining races is so difficult, it’s almost impossible. Because you have Oscar, you have both the Ferrari and Mercedes. It’s almost impossible for him to finish second all the time.”
With Oscar Piastri supporting Norris and likely to take points off Verstappen, the Dutchman doesn’t have a rear gunner for himself. Sergio Perez hasn’t been anywhere near the fight for a podium position except for Baku, and the upcoming tracks aren’t exactly his best.
Rosberg stated how Verstappen wouldn’t be happy with the Formula One Management (FOM) for bringing in all the extra sprint races. The 2016 world champion explained how it’ll make life incredibly difficult for Verstappen in the disastrous RB20.
Sprint races can complicate Verstappen’s championship defense
Three of the remaining six race weekends are going to be sprint weekends. The drivers have just one practice session to optimize the car and this often compromises the whole weekend for the team. This will make it even harder for Verstappen to get the P2 finish.
Rosberg said, “Max will not be happy with F1 for bringing in all those sprint races. With the way his car is going, it’s a lot of pressure on Max.” The three-time champion is on a winless streak of eight races since his victory in Barcelona. While he would count on Red Bull’s US GP upgrade package to break the drought, the Austin weekend being a sprint weekend will complicate his task.
Verstappen has been against F1 increasing the number of sprint races and race weekends in the past as he suggested that it put a lot of unnecessary pressure on the teams in an already crunched-up schedule. So, it will be interesting to see how the reigning champion maximizes points on the remaining sprint weekends with Norris closing in rapidly on him.
