Two time World Champion and Alpine Driver Fernando Alonso thinks Red Bull’s Max Verstappen deserves to win the drivers championship this year while Mercedes should take the constructors’ title.
Alonso said Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton have been driving at a consistently high level, but named the Red Bull driver as his pick for the title. “Both of them are driving amazing and no mistakes and pushing the limits every race,” said Alonso during Thursday’s virtual press conference. “You see that they are first and second in every race because they are on another level. So that’s fantastic to see how they push each other.”
The pair have filled the top two spots in each of the last five races and go into this weekend’s finale tied on points.
“This final race is going to be tense, for sure, for them,” said Alonso. “I think it will depend on the package a little bit. Mercedes lately, I think, is said to be more performing and they won a couple of races now.
“But Max is driving, in my opinion, one step ahead of all of us. We saw the lap in Jeddah until he touched the wall in the last corner – that lap was coming from Max, not from the Red Bull.
“So in a way that’s my opinion: Mercedes deserve the constructors championship because the car is superior and Max maybe overall in the year was driving one a step ahead of everyone.”
However Alonso clarified that he wasn’t cheering on either of his rivals to take the title. “It’s not that I support Max,” said the Spaniard. “I think he deserved it or he was driving – in my opinion, as I said, everyone has a different opinion – I think he was driving that Red Bull to another level.”
