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Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton had a horrendous collision at the 2021 British GP, where Verstappen endured a nasty crash into the wall, sending him to the hospital. Sky Sports F1 presenter Jess McFadyen recently speculated that the collision in 2021 was partially due to the sprint race that took place during that race weekend.
On the Sky Sports F1 podcast, she explained how sprint races massively affect the main race. She reiterated the point that former F1 world champion Damon Hill made about how sprint races are one-third of the entire race and the main race is the other two-thirds of it. She said:
"There's no denying that every time we've had a sprint, it's massively impacted the race on a Sunday. Because we essentially ... again to Damon's point, having a third of a race on a Saturday and then two-thirds on a Sunday."
To support her claim, she gave the example of the 2021 F1 British GP, where Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen collided with each other. She explained that Hamilton knew how fast the Dutchman was at Silverstone from the sprint race. Hence, the seven-time world champion raced quite hard. McFadyen said:
"To think back to Silverstone 2021, if we hadn't have had the sprint, that race, the result would never have been that the result that we had. I don't think Max and Lewis would have come together because Lewis knew, having run the sprint, that if Max gets away on lap one, that's it; race over.
"So you did have that element of jeopardy; you did have that added information that the drivers and teams had in order to potentially make Sundays more interesting."
Sergio Perez admits consistency is key to beating Max Verstappen
The only driver who appears to have a chance to challenge Max Verstappen is his teammate, Sergio Perez.
The Mexican has the same car and the same caliber of engineers and strategists around him. He's also well aware of his main objective, which is to be as consistent as possible. As quoted by Motorsport.com, the Red Bull driver said:
"Of course, if I want to win the championship, I have to beat Max weekend in and weekend out and keep this level of consistency throughout the season. It's all about this season's consistency, you know.
"You can win 15 races, but if in the other races, you just crash and have DNFs and so on, it is not enough. It's just reaching that level of consistency and taking it race by race."
Perez knows that consistency is Max Verstappen's strongest trait, and that's exactly what he needs if he wants to win the championship.
