After having managed to be crowned world champion in his seventh season in Formula 1, Verstappen assures that a weight has been lifted from his shoulders that he intends to take advantage of to sign peace with his greatest rival and battle cleanly on the track.
The 2021 season closed with the first world champion title in the name of Max Verstappen: to his few 24 yearsthe Dutch driver was placed as the fourth youngest talent in history to achieve it, behind rivals on the track such as Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton or Fernando Alonso.
The project conceived between Red Bull and Honda It ended up bearing fruit after the Japanese returned to Formula 1 with more pain than glory initially, thus materializing the hopes of a winning union that managed to stop the unstoppable streak, at least to date, that Lewis Hamilton began in 2014. (with the permission of Nico Rosberg).
unbearable tension
However, the battle between the two on the track was joined by the one between the bosses of their respective teams: Christian Horner and Toto Wolff, a dialectical battle that went further and in which the head of Mercedes in the circuits regrets because “it became very personal”.
Although Verstappen has earned a reputation for overly aggressive driver For some, the #33 confessed that he wants to come to a successful conclusion with his main rival and put aside everything that happened last year to start off on the right foot in 2022.
“You can’t be under so much drama every year, that’s for sure”said Verstappen. “He is not good for me and he is not healthy for anyone in the team, any of the teams,” he added, denying that the fact that he was proclaimed world champion for the first time has changed his life one iota.
«At least not in my case, once I get home I prefer to do the things I did before becoming champion. that little bottom pressure from your mind of having to win a world championship or trying to win one… it’s gone: it’s already happened, I’ve done it, so when things get complicated or I’m unlucky I’ll probably deal with it more easily than usual» , he expressed.
First big rule change
Having debuted in Formula 1 in 2015, still 17 years oldVerstappen did not get to try the V8 engines first-hand, despite the fact that we always see him spinning at the hands of a Red Bull that makes use of one of them in the promotional videos of the energy drink brand.
Therefore, this will be for him the first regulation significantly different from the previous ones that it faces. Do you want to take advantage of it to start an era in the ‘Great Circus’ in his name to try to match Hamilton?
“If I never get seven or eight titles, that’s fine”
“If I never get seven or eight titles, that’s fine. It takes a lot of luck to be in such a dominant position for so long. I just want to enjoy it and I know that, as soon as I step on a circuit, I will continue to want to win, “he closed.