Inside Line: Lewis vs Max will come down to 'geluk'

The "negative stuff" of course is this wretched COVID-19 era the world is going through right now; and the putrid racial abuse that this season's contest has ignited. These are global issues that afflict all sports and society as a whole that needs addressing asap.

But we won't talk about that now. Let's rather focus on the current F1 sporting landscape where Sir Lewis has reigned over F1 for almost a decade, has won just about everything in sight, supported by the best team in the sport's history, in the best cars ever and even a wingman to help out. Invincible springs to mind.

Until this year of course, in which Red Bull and Honda finally delivered a very decent package from day one which has Max Verstappen as a serious contender for the first time ever. And with it the best Max we have ever seen and he too continues to grow!

F1 hopes of a proper fight were realised at the season opener in Bahrain, where Hamilton and Verstappen took centre stage; the first of a cat versus dog game between the number one of the Old Guard and the top Young Gun of the sport. 1-0 to the old boys.

Verstappen should have won that one and was furious that his team went for caution rather than bravery by reigning in their driver when he wanted to take the penalty but then do his talking on track and make up the time deficit.

He stormed over the radio: "Why didn’t you just let me go, man? I could have easily pulled those five seconds. I am prepared to lose a win like that than be second like this."

'Win-or-Fuckall' is how our Max is wired. Simple.

Old Guard - 1; Young Gun - 0;

The came Emiglia Romagna at Imola. Verstappen, bruised, and wanting to make a point was simply untouchable in challenging conditions that might have done more damage to Hamilton's campaign than it did. The Red Bull driver won by over 20 seconds, while the Merc-man limited the damage of nearly beaching his car, by coming in second when on another day might have been a DNF on the spot. Lewis was very, very lucky that day; more than once too.

While Max also had a hairy moment behind the pace car that had luck sprinkled on it.

Old Guard - 1; Young Gun - 1;

And, as only Mercedes and HAM can, they bounced back in Portugal with a proper trouncing of Max in the Algarve, after which the Dutch ace ventured: "I think we just lacked a little pace overall."

Old Guard - 2; Young Gun - 1;

Same story at the Spanish Grand Prix. Mercedes mysterious early-season 'performance loss' was eliminated and Hamilton made the most of it to hunt down his rival and power away into the distance.

Old Guard - 3; Young Gun - 1;

At Monaco, Adrian Newey's wonder-car gave Max the edge which he exploited throughout the weekend, celebrating with the big trophy on the Royal podium while Lewis was left to ponder seventh place after a well below par showing for the Mercs.

Old Guard - 3; Young Gun - 2;

Azerbaijan! A tyre blowout robbed Max of a sure victory in Baku and almost handed Lewis victory but, at the restart of a tense and incident-packed race, a button mix-up with his steering wheel led to a rare mistake by the World Champ as he overshot Turn 1 for the final few lap shootout, which Sergio Perez won. Neither contender scored points.

Old Guard - 3; Young Gun - 2;

What Hamilton did in Spain, chase as hard as he could to steal the win, Verstappen returned the favour with a stellar performance at the French Grand Prix in which he hauled in the Black car to score a famous win.

Old Guard - 3; Young Gun - 3;

On a roll, Verstappen was unstoppable at the Styrian Grand Prix - the first of two successive races at Red Bull's very own Ring - hammering Lewis by 35 seconds, triggering another serious wake-up call for Merc as it was the same thing a week later, same place, same car, Max painted the place orange. The tide had firmly turned, with his rival down in fourth.

Old Guard - 3; Young Gun - 5;

The British Grand Prix. The inevitable, The unstoppable object meets the unmovable wall. Two into one does not go, even in motor racing and the rest as we know is history as Max crashed heavily while Lewis got handed another huge dollop of luck (remember Imola?) as his car was not damaged in the incident and was able to turn things around and win in front of his home crowd. But this one was a bitter victory and set the tone for an off-track war of words between both camps. At last for the briefest of moments, the politically correct bull shit stopped and they were calling it as they saw it. Shame social media messed that aftermath up as it tends to do.

Old Guard - 4; Young Gun - 5;

Everyone expected Red Bull to run away with victory in Hungary before the break, but again luck deserted them and landed firmly in Hamilton's lap as his teammate Valtteri Bottas skittled a chunk of the top runners out by turn one. Verstappen's car was damage with most of the front barge board in shards, and that's how he had to race it! Hamilton missed the entire melee, watching it all unfold in his mirrors. But it was a bizarre race, with rain the star-maker on a day in which Hamilton was denied the 100th victory in unlikeliest of circumstances while Verstappen was stumped. Lady Luck owes him big time.

After 11 Rounds:

Hostilities resume at daunting Spa-Francorchamps in a couple of weeks time followed immediately by Zandvoort and Monza, with Red Bull and their young star looking to regain the points lead they lost after the abovementioned double-disaster, while Merc's veteran will be looking to stick in the knife.

How it goes is anyone's guess because for the first time in years we really don't know, and won't know until Q1 begins in Belgium. If asked to predict, I would venture that Spa will be a little like Silverstone, where the Mercedes will be ultraquick in fast sectors and Red Bull mighty in the slow stuff.

Which again sets up a salubrious stage for Round 12 and the second half of this battle. Without wanting to taunt fate, I am one that does keep count regarding these matters, Max is owed a healthy helping or two of good luck unless, of course, Karma is being a bitch.

In the end, in this great contest of tiny margins on track and off it, luck will be a key factor as we saw at Hungaroring, Silverstone and Imola which, as we know can fall either way.

This one is very tight to call at this stage but I will go out on a limb and say that Max will bag it in the end, with a ton of drama strewn along with the next dozen episodes. But he could do with some geluk to make it happen.

In closing. Some interesting numbers popped into my head doing this piece. Consider that on 277 Grand Prix starts, Hamilton is on 99 F1 victories which is equal to the total number of Grand Prix starts made by Sir Jackie Stewart, who retired from F1 1973 at 34-years-of-age.

Also, 23-year-old Verstappen has 130 Grand Prix starts and 15 F1 wins, at the same point in his career Lewis was 29-years-old and a one-time F1 World Champion (2007) with 22 F1 victories - 21 of them with McLaren.