I don’t think he has a say in the matter. also, what sort of young driver would say no to a seat at a top team?
- Helmut Marko decided who goes where within Redbull / VCarb.
- We dont know his level against Max. He has been an exceptional rookie this year, even considering the crash in Australia. Marko has always been convinced that the kid is extremely capable. So yeah I dont expect him to compete, as I dont expect him to be as abysmal as the previous ones.
- It is Redbull. You dont deny that seat, especially as a rookie in F1
You MUST take a top-level seat in F1 when it is offered. It is career suicide to say no, especially when Red Bull WANTS to promote you.
If you don’t have the confidence and heart to override your brain saying “but Max destroys all his teammates” and take on the challenge, you don’t have the drive needed to compete at that level.
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Heck, at this point you don’t have to worry about beating your teammate. Simply beating the B team would be enough to declare it a success, and that usually isn’t the case. Finishing consistently behind Verstappen but anywhere ahead of the VRBs should be comfortably doable for Hadjar, that’s how just about everyone will be judging him.
He’s also coming in early enough in the development of the next car (I’m assuming he’s probably been apart of it before the announcement) that hopefully RB won’t run into the One Person Horse problem again
Part of the problem for Red Bull at the moment is the general closeness of the field. When this ruleset first came in being 3 tenths off Verstappen still had you in the hunt for a podium while now it can put you out in Q1.
With the new ruleset next year you’d expect there to be a larger spread again so being 3 tenths off Verstappen might only knock the 2nd driver a row or two back.
Do we need to take bets on how McLaren will throw this away?
- bad strategy call
- refusing team orders
- not protecting their drivers from drama
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Here’s my shot at it:
At some point in the race Max refuses to yield a corner, puts a McLaren driver off the track, and forces the officials to make a call or not. (I don’t know if that qualifies as ‘not protecting their drivers from drama’)
McLaren will fumble, wont take a call to sacrifice a driver to make another win
I honestly think Lando will pull it off, but I can see it going the other way too. I think Oscar is the least likely at the moment based on momentum, form, and total points obviously.
If Max is close enough to Lando, he WILL put Lando to the ultimate test; does Lando have the aggression, mentality, and tact to get the better of Max when everything is on the line? Max is not afraid of going over the limit. Is Lando?
Add in the complication of potential team orders, and I can see McLaren botching this, though it’s probably unlikely. But not impossible…
Max has the easiest job. He just needs to go balls-out and let the chips fall where they may. McLaren will be worrying about team orders, mechanical problems, safety cars, strategy…
Either way it’ll be a great story arc. McLaren has risen back to where they SHOULD be as a top-level team from being pretty mediocre in the not-so-distant past, or even being abysmal during the Honda teething-problems. If Max pulls it off, it’ll be one of the greatest comebacks in the history of the sport. If Oscar gets it, he will have defeated one of the GOAT in Max and one of the heirs to F1 royalty in Lando, in his very short career so far.
It would be a generational fumble for McLaren not to win. I can’t see, especially given the inherent pace advantage they have, how they lose it.
A real dark horse possibility given the dynamics of the personalities and point totals - the driver who is trailing the other two in the race wins the championship as the two ahead of them either crash out, and/or get penalized. (bonus drama points: Norris and Piastri are the ones to have an incident, thus giving Max the title 
)
Also, as some are alluding to, seeing whether/if McClaren is willing to run different strategies for their drivers will definitely be a point of interest.
Norris and Piastri qualify on the front row ahead of Verstappen, who will start a little further back.
The Pirelli tyre compounds used for this Grand Prix suggests a two stop strategy for the race.
The McLarens lead at the start of the race, Verstappen gradually works his way up to the front.
Verstappen suffers a tyre puncture in a collision with another car, forcing him to pit. Red Bull commits to a one-stop strategy.
Piastri is out in front, Russell second, Norris cruises comfortably in third with the championship locked. Verstappen charges up the running order again.
Pirelli inspects the tires off of Verstappen’s car, determines the wear to be not as bad as predicted. News of this travels through pit lane.
After getting word of Pirelli findings, and with the previous race’s result fresh on their mind, McLaren revert to a one-stop strategy, in order to match Verstappen’s plan.
Later in the race, after everyone has pitted at least once, Russell suffers an ominous tyre failure. Both McLarens report their cars’ handling going away. The tension racks up while Verstappen moves up to forth, but Norris still has the third and the championship.
With a quarter of the race remaining, Norris suffers a dramatic tire blowout on the fastest part of the circuit, nearly losing control of the car while pulling off the circuit, out of the race with damaged suspension.
Piastri leads and Verstappen is third, but due to Norris’ dramatic exit, Pirelli recommends to McLaren to bring Piastri in for new tires.
McLaren pits Piastri for new Pirelli’s, dropping to second.
Verstappen is third with a tenuous lead in the WDC, but due to his charge up the field, his on board telemetry reads short on fuel. Verstappen can only hope for the telemetry to be wrong while fourth place gradually pulls closer in the final laps of the race.
Checkered Flag: Piastri finishes second, Verstappen finishes third on fumes, and with it, Verstappen wins the Championship by one point over Piastri, three over Norris.
*(Learned aficionados of the sport will know what I’m alluding to…)
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I predict Lando gets pole with Russell second, Piastri 3rd, Max 4th. Lando bottles the start as usual and backs out early so as not to risk a collision with Russell in T1, allowing both Russell and Piastri to pass him. Lando is able to hold Max at bay throughout the first stint but pits early to avoid Max’s undercut, which compromises him during a long second stint. Max eventually passes Lando by forcing him off track and gets a 5s penalty. Nothing changes during second pitstops. Oscar and Max both pass a fading Russell easily. Max can’t stay within 2s of Oscar’s wake.
Oscar wins
Max holds onto second even with his penalty. Lando cruises home behind Russell to finish 4th.
Lando is champion.
Oscar wins DOTD for denying Max the win and says he’s happy to help the team. Fans are mad because no McLaren drama ensues, and Lando getting 4th feeds the narrative from haters that he isn’t a deserving champion.
Bonus prediction: Yuki finishes 6th and asks on the radio for permission to do a burnout to celebrate his last race with Red Bull. Race engineer tells him not to do it.
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The scenario I’d be interested in: if Max is in position ahead of both McLarens with Oscar ahead of Lando, and Lando is one position out of winning the WDC, will McLaren break their own rules to ask Oscar to give Lando the position along with the WDC?
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@Kutschca Oscar can’t win WDC if he is behind Max, so giving the place to Lando would be an easy decision.
My prediction, Verstappen and Norris will have a coming together. Verstappen doing his normal thing and Norris trying to be like that but not being as good at it.
Piastri will cruise through and win the race.
The WDC will be determined by how well Verstappen or Norris make it back through the field (if they haven’t put each other entirely out).
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I just hope that Norris doesn’t get into a battle with Max. IMHO just give Max a wide berth and settle for just trailing him around.
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Max has to do a 2016 HAM and try to back Lando up.
Hell of a pole lap by Max
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Lando should let Oscar pass as soon as it is safe to do so. Max and Oscar will tear each other to bits and Max can’t afford to let Oscar win, so he won’t be able to back Lando up into the pack. He has to go fast. Best case scenario is they hit each other and Lando picks up the pieces. Second best is Oscar forces Max to drive fast and they clear off into the distance leaving Lando alone in 3rd with no risk of contact. Either scenario is better for Lando than having to avoid Max brake checking him and trying to make him crash into Oscar.
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