Davide

What @Max33Verstappen is doing at the #24hNBR is the worst thing that could happen to @F1, and a brilliant strategic move by the Dutch generational talent. Every observer, critic, and pundit on earth knows Formula One has lost its soul. In a pretend green move, F1 has put the driver in the back seat. He is no longer in charge. The clipping algorithm and the battery charge are. Drivers are now turning corners 50 to 60 km/h slower. They “coast.” In a sport that is supposedly about pure performance, they have to take the time to “recharge” and decide when to “boost.” F1 has become Super Mario Kart without the bananas. Alonso (@alo_oficial) said it best: “The chef could drive the car in Turn 12 at that speed,” because they save the energy for the straights. Which means F1 is no longer about pure performance, speed, and the skills that go with them. It’s about saving. Two things make driving a true skill: the direct link between your right foot and power delivery, and the mastery you need in your hands to control the grip right at the limit of what the tires can endure without losing it all and going off track. And now it’s all gone. Your foot is impeded by the computer, and your hands don’t matter as much when you’re not riding the limit of grip. The working trajectories multiply, and raw talent becomes superfluous. What Max did was brilliant. He didn’t rage, throw a tantrum, or blackmail anyone. He simply took his skill somewhere else. Somewhere piloting skills still matter. Where you control power to a hair with your right foot, where your hands are constantly at the limit of the grip, and where trajectories are an art — especially when overtaking, at night, in the rain, at 270km/h. And he’s flying. It’s too soon to say if he will win the race, but at the time of writing he’s in P1 with a solid 33-second advantage. And that is enough. Even if, by a twist of fate, he does not win the 24h today, he has already proved a point: under these conditions, Formula 1 is no longer the pinnacle of motorsport. GT might be. And even if he doesn’t win, he has beaten the best drivers in the GT world tonight — guys with 20+ years of experience, grinta, and daredevil talent on one of the hardest tracks on the planet. Now put yourself in the shoes of @LewisHamilton or any other F1 paddock star. They’ve been sidelined. They’ve become transparent. Max stole the show. What is their “brand,” their name, worth again after the show Max put on today? What is @F1 worth? If Lewis wants to beat Max and regain relevance, doesn’t he also have to come to GT and try to beat him here? And would he? And the others ? I guess we’ll never know. But we’re living in quite a special time, when F1 has lost its dominance and a single driver removed the veil from the eyes of the onlookers. F1, the Emperor, is naked. Its new clothes of super clipping were a sham. And Max showed it to the world on the hardest German track. Nordschleife, the Green Hell, is showing us that in Formula One too, to go green is Hell. Go Max !