Don’t let F1 finale detract from Max Verstappen’s merits as world champion

The season ended in controversial fashion in Abu Dhabi but still crowned a more than worthy world champion

Max Verstappen may yet get a third chance to celebrate his first Formula One world championship.

At the time of writing, officials have rejected two appeals from Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes team pertaining to what they saw as incorrectly applied rules and Verstappen’s overzealousness, nosing ahead of Hamilton before the race was restarted on the final lap. Both were thrown out some four hours after the 24-year-old had bounded out of his car after crossing first in the season’s 22nd and final race, in Abu Dhabi. A second bite of the celebratory cherry came when Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and chief technical officer Adrian Newey returned to the garage with news of the rejections.

Mercedes will appeal the former, and in doing so reiterate their belief race director Michael Masi played god by parting the sea between Hamilton and Verstappen of lapped cars and indeed the safety car for the latter’s uninhibited passing. And the law of diminishing returns suggests any expected re-confirmation of Verstappen’s success won’t be as powerful as the first or second.

No doubt there is further road to come in this episode, maybe even the assertion that the sport got caught up in its own entertainment narrative. But however many asterisks are placed upon this maiden title by those associated with Hamilton, it is clear Verstappen has passed the first considerable milestone in a career with plenty more to come.

Six years after taking to the track as Formula One’s youngest driver, he has returned a season to remember. The statistics tell a story of consistency: 10 victories, eight second-place finishes, 10 pole positions and 395.5 points. The eyes tell one far more alluring: cavalier driving, veering over reckless on plenty of occasions in what felt a season-long game of chicken with the 36-year-old Hamilton.

Does age play a part? Hard to say with any certainty. How much of the bursts into the smallest of spaces, those dips through the inside or blocking out of a seven-time champion breathing down his neck can be attributed to youth? All who step into the cockpit do so armed with bravery. Only the best do so with the kind of nous to engage a larrikin spirit into the final lap of an entire season when a title is on the line.

Perhaps that’s the crux of Verstappen’s merits as a world champion. The ability to mature without dulling the spiky edges that saw plenty anoint him a future great way back when. Those who know him well say he retains a young man’s simplicity: a love of fast cars, Fifa and spending his earnings on gadgets and clothes he may regret buying when he reaches thirty.

Countering all that is an old man’s perspective. He notes the fame he has accrued, and the trappings that come with it, are beginning to become a nuisance. Though he refused to be part of Drive To Survive, his Red Bull associates reveal he watches the show regularly enough to grumble. Horner recalls an occasion when Verstappen came in one day complaining about a scene in which the clip was him driving in Monza but overlaid with radio chatter from Monaco. The perils of incredible attention to detail and an inability to let things lie.

Verstappen celebrates a first F1 world title (PA Wire)

Lord knows what he might make of the season four finale, though his criticisms of a hammed-up show might have to be parked when cycling through 2021’s season. There is very little need for any creative license given what happened on the track and what was said off it, though we may get to know a few stewards given how prominently they feature.

Abu Dhabi may have been the clincher, but the best win of the season was undoubtedly in Austin. Perhaps his best ever: managing the pressure, driving flawlessly and with the utmost composure. He was able to judge the merits of his own car and tyres while noticing Hamilton was not quite as one with his own machine. And yet Hamilton was, to most observers, in the midst of his own flex of smarts and brawn only for Verstappen to hold him off despite running on more worn tires.

Hamilton was magnanimous in defeat stepping out of his car one last final time in 2021, although he avoided the post-match press conference as his team’s protests raged on into the night. A cryptic “we’ll see about next year” was his last on-the-record utterance on Sunday evening.

Time will tell whether he gets back out there to reclaim his crown. Quite apart from any ambitions beyond the track, this might be the hardest he has had to fight outside his team for a title he always feels is his to lose.

The conversations on whether this was “won” outright by Verstappen will never go away. But one thing is for sure – if Hamilton is to get no 8, he will now have to reach a higher plane of excellence. His rival is only going to get better.