Damon Hill snubs Max Verstappen and predicts the podium for the Bahrain Grand Prix

The drivers’ championship is perfectly poised ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix with just one point separating Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.

McLaren have quickly established themselves as the team to beat in the constructors’ championship, pulling out a 36-point advantage over Mercedes.

Red Bull currently sit in third, which is even more impressive when you consider that Max Verstappen has scored all of their points this year.

Both Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda have failed to secure a top 10 finish for Red Bull, although the Japanese driver will be confident he can break that duck at the Bahrain Grand Prix now that he understands the car better, and the track should be easier to overtake on than Suzuka.

For Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, the battle to establish their dominance in the intra-team McLaren fight continues.

Piastri thinks Norris has the best chance of winning the championship, but he’ll be hoping to change that with a positive result this weekend.

Ferrari are set to experiment in Bahrain, with neither Charles Leclerc nor Lewis Hamilton entirely happy with their cars.

Damon Hill has had a go at trying to predict the top three in Bahrain, and left out a couple of interesting drivers.

READ MORE: Which F1 drivers do well at the Bahrain Grand Prix with Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso successful in Sakhir

Damon Hill predicts the Bahrain Grand Prix podium and snubs Max Verstappen

Hill was asked on The Fast and The Curious Podcast to give his prediction for the race in Bahrain, and he said: “I’m going to go Lando, Oscar, Charles Leclerc.”

The 1996 world champion then explained the conundrum many teams face in Formula 1, but this year appears to be an issue for McLaren about attempting to win both championships.

He explained: “Why would the team car which one [driver] wins the drivers’ championship?

“Well, if you don’t care which one wins, then for certain the drivers care; they want their name on that trophy.

“So, this is why this sport is so fascinating and frustrating and baffling, is that it has two championships that go on simultaneously, in the same competition, the drivers’ and the constructors’.

“And all the money is attached to the constructors’, well, maybe they ought to look at that.

“Originally, everything was attached to the driver and the driver could say, ‘OK, I’m not driving for you anymore, I’m halfway through the season, I’m going to go and drive an Alfa,’ so there needs to be a balance somewhere where the driver can not be vulnerable to being reprimanded by his team because he does what he thinks is right for this career.”

READ MORE: What F1 teams do well at the Bahrain Grand Prix with Ferrari and Mercedes successful

Max Verstappen is still battling Red Bull issues after winning the Japanese Grand Prix

The struggles that Lawson and Tsunoda have had to deal with this year at Red Bull only make Verstappen’s victory at Suzuka even more impressive.

His qualifying lap ranks among his best in Formula 1, and he benefited from McLaren not pushing the boat with their pit stop strategy despite having two cars at their disposal.

Red Bull worked hard during the race weekend to work out how to improve the RB21 when it appeared to be well off the pace of McLaren’s car and even the two Mercedes machines.

However, the Bahrain Grand Prix is going to be very different to pre-season testing at the circuit, with temperatures set to skyrocket compared to the chilly February conditions.

McLaren are expected to benefit from the rising temperatures, while their advantage when it comes to their tyre management will be more obvious in Bahrain than it was in Japan.

Hill may not expect Verstappen to be on the podium on Sunday evening, but he’s proven plenty of people wrong in his career before.