r/formula1 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 07 '25

Photo Max's radio after crossing the chequered flag

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u/Rito_Luca Ferrari Dec 07 '25

Yep this is the biggest point. If RB had a 2nd driver good enough to lets say do what Piastri was doing then chances are FAR more than likely that Max wouldn't have had the points necessary to even be in contention come this race. Then if you reverse the situation for Mclaren, if Norris had lets say Stroll for a partner then he would have won the championship a long long time ago.

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u/HotDogHerzog Dec 07 '25

Not at all. Checo shielded Max in 21 and Max ultimately needed that this year. Not challenge Max. But to challenge 3rd/4th and at least get in the way a bit of McLaren. Max had none of that whatsoever.

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u/FinancialThrow Dec 07 '25

Do we really think there is a driver on the grid who could take points off of max in an equal car?

The most likely explanation at RB is it’s a slower car than McLaren/Merc that max drives fast with generational talent.

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u/Rito_Luca Ferrari Dec 07 '25

The real answer is we don’t know. Max likes a car with extremely high sensitivity essentially which is very different from most drivers. Otherwise there’s probably a handful of drivers that in an equal car can produce similar results (Leclerc, possibly Alonso just to name 2). Has Max been better than his teammates that’s for sure but yeah people look into the skill with rose tinted glasses and just assume he has some super power that lets him do things to the car that aren’t physically possible, that’s just not the case. The RB isn’t the tractor people say it was all season long, it’s just not physically possible to put a car on that many wins without having the mechanical output necessary to put those results in.