Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto admits that his team relies on Max Verstappen DNFing in the remaining races than their own merit.
In Belgium, Ferrari yet again saw a crushing defeat against Red Bull. With this, Max Verstappen, the race winner at Spa, is now 98 points ahead of Charles Leclerc in the drivers’ standings.
Not only that, the Monegasque has finally slipped further in the standings. With his P2 podium finished, Sergio Perez overtaken him and now boasts a glorious tally of 191 points.
Leclerc has little chance to cover the gigantic gap with only the last eight races left. Even if Leclerc wins all races, Verstappen can still technically win the championship.
Realizing this gap, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto admits they would need Verstappen to make mistakes to win the championship. The gap, according to him, is enormous.
“The gap to Max [Verstappen] is very high. It will not be sufficient for Charles to win all the races, or to finish ahead of him. So we count on Max not finishing races,” said Binotto.
Max Verstappen on a rampage
The Dutchman had an electrifying performance in Belgium on Sunday. He started from P14 but quickly went on to climb the ladder and was leading the race even before the halfway mark.
The Red Bull superstar with this now has over 28 race wins. If this doesn’t seem huge, he is only four race wins away from equalling Fernando Alonso’s race wins tally.
Surely, he can overtake the Spaniard within the remainder of this season only. Nevertheless, this title is only Verstappen’s to lose, and his reputation doesn’t reflect him as someone who generally makes mistakes.
Moreover, the pressure from Ferrari, which was earlier present in the season, is quickly fading away from his shoulders. Now it only remains to be seen how quickly Red Bull and Verstappen will wrap up the title.
Also read: Charles Leclerc gets to know about 5-second time penalty during interview post-race
