Max Verstappen Just Gained an Advantage Over Lewis Hamilton in the Championship Fight

The 2020 F1 season will soon be upon us. The F1 season will kick start with back to back races in Austria. The first one on the 5th of July and the second one an exact week later. Yeah, you heard that right, back to back race weekends (Hallelujah!). Now, you may think that this season Hamilton will equal Schumacher’s record or you may think Leclerc will notch his first drivers’ championship but let me throw in one name to keep your eyes peeled out for Red Bull and Max Verstappen.

Dutch fans would probably have already placed their money on the Red Bull phenom. That’s not a far fetched thought and we’ll tell you why.

Could 2020 be Max Verstappen and Red Bull’s year?

Max Verstappen is one of only 7 drivers in F1 history to win consecutive races at the Red Bull Ring (Austria). Needless to say that this is Max’s track. He’ll want to ensure that he takes maximum advantage of that fact and what better time to do so than this year. As mentioned earlier, the fact that there’ll be two back to back races in Austria would mean that it’s advantage Verstappen.

There would be no better place for him and Red Bull to start the F1 season than in Austria. Two back to back wins would certainly send a statement of intent to the other drivers and teams. Additionally, the fact Lewis hasn’t got a podium in Austria in the last two years should give Max a head start.

The next race is in Hungary on the 19th of July. Max won a pole here last season and finished second in the race behind Hamilton but Mercedes could drop points considering this isn’t Bottas’ strongest track. The Finn finished 8th last year and 5th the year before.

To add to that, Lewis usually starts the season slowly and picks up momentum gradually. This fact would be a major boost to Red Bull in an 8 round season. Also, we must not forget that Mercedes cars usually struggle in higher temperatures, and luckily for Red Bull, the European summer has already set in.

Of course, this in itself wouldn’t be enough. Red Bull and Verstappen would still need consistency (and some half baked performances from Mercedes and Ferrari) but if this season were to be a shortened one (8 rounds) it would give both Red Bull as well as Verstappen the edge.