Jos Verstappen: 'Because Verstappen is alone, Hamilton has free play'

Max Verstappen has to pull the team alone, because his teammate Alexander Albon is not fast enough to keep up with him. This often results in a difficult battle with Mercedes, who can keep Red Bull at bay with two strong drivers. Therefore it is very important for Verstappen in 2021 to get help from a second driver who can come along.

Cards shuffled differently

Jos Verstappen was asked in the last Peptalk at Ziggo Sport who could become the team mate of Verstappen, about which he says: "At the moment I don't think it is going well enough. Max needs a strong second team mate, then the race [at Imola] would have been different as well. If it was the start of the race and the teammate was behind Hamilton, that teammate could have come in earlier and Hamilton should have come in as well. The cards would have been shuffled very differently.

"So it's very important to have a very good teammate next to Max," but who would that be? In his answer, he raises the same names that has been going around for weeks: "We all know: it's either Albon, or Perez, or Hulkenberg. It will have to be one of those three."

Free play for Hamilton

We also take a look back at the tyre changes, where Verstappen went in reasonably early. But that didn't surprise his father. "No, not really. This was the only chance we had to get to Bottas. Look, if you do an undercut... as it's called, and Max goes outside now and he drives two quick laps in a row if Bottas stays outside, then he's in front of it.

"But Bottas came in the next lap and it's the same. But since you don't have a good second teammate now, Lewis has free play. That car is just a bit better than ours anyway and that means he can keep good lap times and he'll be in front of Bottas and Max."