'Verstappen and Hamilton can afford this kind of blandness, but not the rest'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Last weekend a special but not surprising moment occurred during qualifying. As always happens on Saturday, during Q3 a long line formed in the final phase just before the last corner. So long that Sergio Perez, who was at the back of that line, couldn't even do his final run and Verstappen crossed the line just in time.
Many people blamed Hamilton for this tight qualifying because he would have held up the two Red Bull's. According to Kees van de Grint, this was not the fault of the Brit but the sport in general. This he says in the Slipstream RTL GP podcast.
"That's because everyone is programmed literally and figuratively. If a situation like this arises, panic sets in. It's very sad, but also very nice to see how many blunders were made this whole weekend. In some garages, the supervisor is attached to a cable. They can't even move freely. It's a grid."
Van de Grint sees copycat behaviour in F1
Because according to the Dutchman, the drivers behind the cars of Mercedes and Red Bull mainly look at these two teams and then start doing exactly what they also do during a qualifying session.
"Well, I can imagine Verstappen, Hamilton and possibly Bottas have a margin during qualifying. But the other names can't really afford this kind of blandness. But yes: the big ones do it, so the others will too. And now you saw the difference on Saturday. The two Mercedes cars were slow, but that was mainly because the cars in front of them were also slow".
The so-called 'gentleman's agreement' during qualifying has also been a topic of discussion for some time. For the time being this doesn't seem to change because in the new format that was tested at Silverstone we also saw this happen.