His girlfriend Kelly Piquet chats at a table with Helmut Marko, a consultant for Red Bull. Max Verstappen leaves a room in the Interlagos office and walks calmly towards another commercial appointment before the start of the São Paulo GP.
Although it’s an everyday scene, photographers follow the Dutchman. You need to stock your files. They know that, very soon, these images can become very much in demand.
That’s what happens to world champions.
More and more it seems just a matter of time. In Interlagos, this Sunday, Verstappen can take an important step towards winning his first world title.
With the two points taken on Saturday in the qualifying race, he extended his lead over Hamilton to 21. The math is clear, there’s a magic number on the horizon: 25.
If the difference increases to 25 points after Interlagos, you will not need to win any more GP to be champion. Even if the Englishman wins the remaining three stages _Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi_, it will be enough for the Dutchman to always finish second.
One more exercise: if the difference goes up to 33 points, Verstappen could be champion just finishing third in the three races that remain. It looks pretty comfortable.
And it is precisely for this reason, because the situation seems comfortable, that I believe we will see a different Verstappen in this final stretch of the championship. A Verstappen who will fight his own instincts, his natural aggression. Expect a cerebral Verstappen.
An appetizer of this already came on Saturday, in the qualifying race.
The Verstappen we’ve seen in F-1 since 2014 would make Sainz’s life much more difficult and he wouldn’t think much before attacking Bottas. Yesterday he waited. And at no time did he threaten the Finn.
Underneath his helmet, in the tightness of the cockpit, he must have taken a deep breath and thought about all he had to lose.
Lewis Hamilton, runner-up at the F-1 World Championship, in the Mercedes pits in Interlagos
Image: Beto Issa/São Paulo GP
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Hamilton already lives the opposite situation. He ran on Saturday with the knife in his teeth and will repeat that attitude until the end of the year. There is no other option.
It is impossible not to remember the response the Englishman gave to a reporter on Thursday, the day of the official press conferences here in Interlagos. The colleague asked if winning at Interlagos was an obligation. The seven-time champion’s answer: “Winning is always an obligation”.
Today will be very difficult. But I think the chances of seeing Hamilton on the podium are great.
In any case, it is important not to underestimate Interlagos. The day is sunny and hot, with few clouds in the sky, but everything can turn in an instant and turn the race upside down. It has happened many times.
It’s everything Hamilton dreams of.
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