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Believe this is the last race of the year that LEC & SAI might have a performance edge of VER. I still think that better tire deg wins Max the race though but Ferrari has it's best chance of a P1 by merit of their performance and not completely due to the misfortune of others. Do not think there is a good chance of this happening - but believe this to be the last opportunity for Ferarri. The evolution of RB18 just allows RB to have so many more options with Max than they did at the beginning of the season. Running that rear wing at Monza... they are on top of their game combined with the best driver who is also on top of his game right now.
Think this is going to be a very telling weekend for Checo. If he can close the gap to Max a bit here hopefully that is a good sign he is starting to get a handle on the pointier characteristics of the car. Pulling for Checo - excellent driver & excellent mindset for a teammate. Unfortunately just doesn't show well lacking that much pace from the other car - even when said car/driver is clearly head & shoulders above everyone else. When your car is shown to have that much potential you have to be fighting for P2. It's not a big deal this year but down the line they will need the 2nd car to be consistently in the mix. Maybe they will have room in the budget next season to diverge a bit on the two cars to help PER extract more out of his car. I believe they can do that and still keep Max out in front overall - but might not be worth the risk for them.
Mercedes - going to be interesting to see how they close out the season. Is there a bit of a fine line between continuing progress this season to continue learning the new car or at this point do they limit how much of their hand they show for next season? Anything less than P1 in both the driver's & constructor's championships is a failure for them no matter what they say - so do they really care to push all out the rest of the season or keep some of the upgrades in their pocket for next year?
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