Max Verstappen On His Way To Second Title; Alpine A Confused Organization

This weekend Formula 1 heads to the Netherlands for what is the second stop on the Max Verstappen home race tour.  Born in Belgium but “raised” Dutch, this weekend and the previous serve as complements to his dual nationality.  If the Dutch Grand Prix treats him as hospitably as the Belgium race did, then Verstappen will continue his march to his second championship in a steady and dominant fashion.

Consider that with eight races left on the calendar, Verstappen could conceivably clinch the title in four races at the Japanese GP.  That scenario plays out with Verstappen winning the next four races (certainly a possibility) and Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc not grabbing the best points offerings they can.  From a computational standpoint, that is the best-case elements playing out.

The more realistic prospect is that Verstappen has to wait another week and celebrates the championship just outside Austin, Texas.  The reality of 2022, is that Verstappen is very much on his way to becoming a double champion unless the wheels fall off his Red Bull for the next five races.  The likelihood of such results is minimal––only Ferrari would be able to pull off such a meltdown.

Ferrari are, however, the very reason that Verstappen may have to wait an extra race or two because every so often the Prancing Horse gets its collective mind together and puts together a brilliant race weekend and uses all the speed they have developed in this yearʻs car to exit with a win.  In a bit of a twist of fate to Verstappen, the Dutch GP looks like it may be going in Ferrariʻs favor.  Although, with qualifying yet to happen, thereʻs still reason to believe that Ferrari will somehow pull a Ferrari.

Odds & Sods

– The big news coming from the Dutch GP has nothing to do with the frontrunners but rather with the teams fighting for fourth in the constructorʻs standings.  McLaren had been holding down the position until recently when Alpine scored well last weekend and started to pull ahead to the margin of 20 points over their rival.  Ahead of the weekend, Alpine seemed sure to continue on their way.

The news that Oscar Piastri would be freed from Alpine and would be joining McLaren for 2023 shook up the identities of both teams.  With the news coming Friday that Pisatri was not bound to Alpine and that his contract was good with McLaren, there is reason to believe that morale might be running high with the papaya-colored group as they can look forward to…