We return to North America for an “all cards on the table” event before the long European summer of the World Cup
Two Sundays after the Monegasque apotheosisFerrari is aiming for Montreal for the litmus test and confirmation of the candidacy of Charles Leclerc to a challenge for the title that only a month ago seemed completely unthinkable and which instead seeks confirmation in the ninth (precisely) stage of the World Championship. We return to North America five weeks after Miami where (due to victory of Lando Norris) the Red Bull certainties had experienced the first cracks, then widened (after Verstappen’s success in Imola) by Leclerc’s success in the very fast secular and motorized procession on his home streets. The Monegasque glimpses the silhouette of the Dutchman’s Red Bull… thirty-one points further (169 to 138): still out of psychological reach of the twenty-five points that go to the winner but not completely indistinct.
But be careful about underestimating the McLaren threat: Norris has already passed the one hundred mark for a couple of rounds and with thirteen he is much closer to Leclerc than the Ferrari driver is to the leader. Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez are also already in triple figures (108 and 107 points respectively). The Madrilenian must find a little more sprint but it is inevitable that – as time passes – his focus is increasingly on the need to find a new position in a short time. The Mexican, on the other hand, closes the top five in the ranking and that is already it emblematic of how the World Championship is becoming more complicated for Red Bull, within the anomalies of a season in which the complications of the so-called Hornergate and the gradual exit of Adrian Newey they have mysteriously but unequivocally mixed with the certainties of a situation of dominance which – Formula One is always made up of cycles – may have entered the sunset avenue. Too early to say? Montreal can point the wayFerrari and McLaren are in the best position to follow it.
