“Conflict played a big role,” Max Verstappen on strained relationship with Lewis Hamilton in 2021
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Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton
Dutch driver Max Verstappen in a Red Bull is a combination that will probably go down in the history of Formula 1 as one of the most successful pairs ever. As Verstappen has already bagged a Championship title after defeating eight-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton, he has got some newfound confidence now. But even in this new season, as his former rival Hamilton seems to be struggling in his Mercedes, winning the World Championship for a second time is not going to be an easy feat for Verstappen.
In 2021, any motorsport enthusiast would have undoubtedly claimed Hamilton to be Max’s chief rival but the picture has changed now. With the new rules that the FIA have brought into effect, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc has come up to be a force to reckon with. Leclerc has already had two pole positions and two race wins in the first three races of this season, as compared to Verstappen’s 2 DNFs and only one race win.
In Jeddah, Verstappen and Leclerc engaged in a spectacular wheel-to-wheel battle and the former has come out victorious. There seems to be a healthy competition between the Dutch prodigy and the Monegasque. But looking back at Verstappen’s previous season, his attitude towards his then rival Lewis Hamilton was not like this at all.
Max Verstappen believes the Mercedes-Red Bull rivalry had made things bitter between him and Lewis Hamilton
The reigning World Champion of Formula 1, Max Verstappen, sat down for a talk with La Gazzetta dello Sport ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Imola this weekend. Among other questions, he was asked if his Championship rivalry with Hamilton in 2021 was any different from the one with Leclerc now.
In reply to this, Max Verstappen said, “Every driver is different in the way they attack or defend, so you have to approach it in a certain way.“
The title battle between the then defending World Champion Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen had been the talk of the F1 town for a long time. In fact, it was carefully covered in the latest season of Drive to Survive, the Netflix show on F1, to depict how things had turned too sour between the two talented drivers. But Verstappen says the rivalry was nothing personal as it was solely because both of them wanted to win and their teams had also been locked in a fight of their own.
“I think the conflict between Mercedes and Red Bull played a big role in the fight between me and Lewis, as well as all the events that happened during the championship. That exacerbated the confrontation on the track.“, Verstappen said.
In the upcoming races, as Max Verstappen has to overcome a whopping 43-point-difference between him and Leclerc, how competitive will the Dutchman get while driving his RB-18? That remains to be seen.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)