Former Formula One world champion Mika Hkkinen says Red Bull currently has the best package in F1 despite Ferrari having a faster car.
Max Verstappen was able to secure his sixth win of the season last weekend in Canada as he was able to relieve pressure from Carlos Sainz during the final few laps of the race. This meant that Verstappen currently leads the driver’s standings and has a 49-point advantage over Charles Leclerc, who is in third place.
Former world champion Hkkinen commented in his column for Unibet that Red Bull currently has the best package to attack the championship and is too strong for the rest at the moment. However, the Finnish racing legend pointed out that the only potential problem for the Milton Keys-based team may be their reliability issues.
“We had no doubt that Max is in control of the championship before the weekend and the result in Montreal confirms that Red Bull’s package is very strong at the moment.”
“He has straight line speed, good balance and a car that can make Max work clearly on every type of circuit. Montreal is one circuit where you need a little bit of braking and good confidence under low speed performance. But strong traction for straights where you can overtake and Max’s car looks great everywhere.”
The only problem for Red Bull appears to be reliability. Once again we saw an issue in the race for Checo Perez.”
“This would have terrified the team on a day when Max really needed to take advantage of Leclerc starting from the back of the grid, so a great result would be a relief for him. The only credibility seems to be Max, Checo [Perez]And the team needs to worry about that,” Hkkinen said.
The former world champion continued by saying that Ferrari could still challenge Red Bull for the championship if they could top their credibility issues. He also said the Italian team would need some luck and expected Verstappen to be in trouble.
“Ferrari has a fast car but it is fragile. Team boss Mattia Binotto is right in saying that it is better to have a faster car with some reliability issues than a slower car that takes over.”
“If the team can get on top of their credibility problems, Charles and Carlos can certainly challenge Red Bull again, although closing the 49-point gap between Max and Charles will not be easy.”
“Not only do Ferrari need to win some races, they also need to put Max in trouble,” Hkkinen said.