Max Verstappen is anticipating another lonely race by himself at Silverstone this weekend despite the different tyre compounds on offer.
On Sunday, the Dutchman found himself in no-mans-land behind the two Mercedes’ and ahead of Charles Leclerc in third, as the Red Bull had no response to the pace of the W11.
Ultimately, he did fortuitously gain second after Valtteri Bottas suffered a puncture in the closing laps, and while the prospect of higher temperatures and one-step softer tyres may make for a different kind of race for the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, Max doubts it will impact the pecking order.
“I don’t think it will change a lot,” Verstappen said on Sunday.
“I think everybody will probably end up doing a two-stop strategy but also for me, I don’t think there will be a lot of changes to the way I will be driving. So I’ll probably be counting some sheep next to the track.”
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The difference between Mercedes and Verstappen was one second per lap both in qualifying and for large parts of Sunday and the 22-year-old knows that can’t change much in a week.
“The gap is so big, c’mon! Maybe you find a tenth, or one-and-a-half, OK we are a bit closer – but it’s not close enough,” he continued.
“I’m trying but it’s not possible at the moment. You have to be realistic. I mean you can dream, and you can hope but I think it’s way more important to be realistic because that’s how you move forward.
“If you keep dreaming about those chances, it’s not going to happen. We just have to keep working.”
As is indicative of Mercedes though, Hamilton was a little more cautious when it came to adapting to the less durable compounds.
“One step softer is going to be a challenge for us all and no doubt will move us all to at least a two-stop,” he said.
“Obviously our cars are a lot quicker this year and we’re using the same tyres as last year, they weren’t able to develop a better tyre to deal with the forces for this season.
“So it’s going to be a serious challenge I think but everyone’s in the same boat and naturally we’ll get a much better understanding of the tyre life and what we can do to be better prepared next week for the softer set that they bring.”
