“I think it’s gone completely over his head,” Christian Horner on Max Verstappen’s maiden F1 title triumph over rival, Lewis Hamilton
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Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen
The epic last lap showdown in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix gave Formula One fans all over the world the exhilarating experience of seeing two neck-to-neck contenders show up to try their hands out at winning the championship title in the very last race conducted at the Yas Marina Circuit.
Such a thrilling race has only increased the hopes of Formula One fans to expect a similar if not more thrilling season ahead, with just a few weeks to go for the first Grand Prix of the season in Bahrain. The controversial results of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix had the entire grid and fans divided over the validity of the results. While a considerable number of people are still upset over Hamilton losing out his record eighth championship title to Dutchman Max Verstappen, the Red Bull Racing driver seems to have moved on from the drama that followed after the race.
The 24-year-old driver won his maiden championship title at Abu Dhabi after keeping 7-time world championship winner Lewis Hamilton at bay in the last lap, when he got the much-needed boost to attack Hamilton.
Christian Horner believes that Abu Dhabi controversy is a worry of the past for Max Verstappen now
“It was just such an epic season, from start to finish so, so intense,” mentioned Red Bull Racing’s Team Principal Christian Horner in reference to the gripping last race of the 2021 season. He also added on how the Austrian-based racing team were going through a rough patch initially with the commencement of the 2021 season, and that it all came down to experiencing a bit of good luck with the safety car episode at the Yas Marina Circuit. “It was controversial but we made the right strategic calls and Max still needed to get the job done, and that pass on the last lap was hugely tense but he managed to finish the job off, won the race and became the world champion.”
On being asked to comment on the last season being deemed as “unfair”, Horner replied, “You’ve got to look at the season as a whole.” He added the statistics of Verstappen winning 10 races in the season to Hamilton’s 8, and the fact that the current defending champion also led more laps than all of the drivers combined at the end of the season. “We did get a little bit lucky with the incident in the end in Abu Dhabi but we still had to go and convert that, and Max was very deserving of that championship. You can understand the controversy and a lot’s been made of that.”
He also noted that at the end of the day, the decisions had nothing to do with them. Red Bull had decided to change the tyres while Mercedes not to, which gave an edge to Verstappen. In terms of Verstappen’s current thoughts on the subject, Horner mentioned, “I think it’s gone completely over his head. He was delighted to get that first world championship, against such a strong opponent – Lewis Hamilton, the most successful driver of all-time. I think that’s what made it so intense, so hard last year, was just the intensity of that rivalry.”
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Rishika Saha
(445 Articles Published)