F1: Verstappen scares in Montmel training and beyond: Finish the World Cup already?

The Dutchman sets the best time on the circuit with an exaggerated difference over the rest

• Atmosphere The war between Barcelona and Madrid for Formula 1 with the second Alonsomana as a witness
• Interview Guenther Steiner, the small team director who became famous on Netflix: “The public chants me and I am ashamed”

“Yes, you can”, “yes, you can”, “yes, you can”, chanted the public, more than 50,000 fans who have come to Montmel to watch some simple training sessions. This World Cup is a gift for the followers of Formula 1 in Spain, with Fernando Alonso always on the podium, with the dream that “yes, you can” do something else, but the reality outside of that euphoria is different: what if the championship is over? Max Verstappan appears first on the track, completes several laps at a dizzying pace, registering one of them almost a second faster than the rest of his rivals, and returns to the garage. If there is no disaster in qualifying, as happened in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan, if he does not suffer any breakdown in the race, the current champion is favoritism to win this Sunday (3:00 p.m., DAZN) and even in spring, even in the absence of 16 races, the title already seems his.

In the first tests, especially with so many urban circuits, there was the illusion of a competitive year, he against Czech Prez, Checo Pérez against him, but the disaster of the Mexican in Monaco and the reliability of the Dutchman have already separated them: 39 points between them. How does Verstappen go back to 39 points? “At the moment it looks like I can win every race, but I don’t think it will happen. Because of the pace, I could, but there are always things that go wrong. Getting to tracks where I struggle or I’ll have bad luck in qualifying or do something wrong. mistake”, recognized the leader of Red Bull.

In his mind, as he hinted, a piece of information, a sort of curse. At Montmel he has won twice and has taken four other podiums, but has never taken pole position. The Spanish Grand Prix is ​​the place where he has tried it the most times, up to eight, without luck: a rarity. Last year I surpassed him charles leclerc in classification and the previous one did lewis hamilton. Now they both want to be a threat to the two Red Bulls again, join Alonso in it, but they still can’t find the way. In fact, this weekend Ferrari presents a set of novelties (new sidepods, new floor and new rear wing) that, apparently in practice, is still not enough.

On the Spanish track, asked about his own dominance, about the exaggerated difference with the rest, Verstappen replied: “We’ve always seen this in Formula 1, it’s nothing new.” “I think the longer you leave the regulations the same, the more people will come closer. So maybe this is something we have to look at,” he said of a possible regulation change in 2026 that would dethrone him, as happened with the Lewis era. Hamilton and his Mercedes. In any case, while that moment arrives, the Dutchman will continue to win practically without opposition, prematurely. And if the championship is over?