Carlos Sainz gave the best audition to recruiters when he came home with a win at the Australian Grand Prix. The man is driving like never before and is in the form of his lifetime. However, despite the stellar drive and becoming the only non-Red Bull winner in the last 16 months for the second time, many are arguing that it may not have been possible had Max Verstappen not had car troubles. But is there any truth to that?

Ex-Ferrari manager Peter Windsor disagrees. Windsor, whose voice is considered an authority in the F1 world, argued that Max Verstappen wouldn’t have won the race or beaten the Ferraris had things not gone south. Stating Sergio Perez couldn’t step up, he said the best-case scenario would have been beating McLarens, which also they couldn’t manage.

Talking during his live stream, Windsor said, “Sergio Perez today in the sole RB20 in the race when Max has a problem that’s when Red Bull needed him to step up and be on the podium okay he had that three-place grid penalty he went from third to six and it was really difficult I suppose for him to do much after that but put it another way if Max was in that car to win that situation starting where he was. Do you think he would have been P5? I think he would have beaten the McLaren. He may not have beaten the Ferraris, but he would have beaten the McLaren.”

With all the uproar around Verstappen’s shock retirement, let us take a look at what really happened to his car.

Christian Horner explained the exact issue with Max Verstappen’s car. He said, “I think we can see there’s been an issue where the caliper has created the brake to bind on and that’s happened from the very start of the race, so you can see the heat building and then I think as early as the second lap it was like Max has got a handbrake at turn three, he had a moment there, then another that allowed Carlos to pass him, he was then lining up to have a go back and then had another moment and then we started to see the smoke and then the fire.”

Do you think Max Verstappen will dominate the 2024 campaign as he did in 2023?