Max Verstappen reflects on multiple topics related to the F1 Abu Dhabi GP, his start, Lap 1, safety car, last lap pass on Lewis Hamilton, protest & more.
The curtain closes on the 2021 F1 season where there is plenty to talk about. Even until the beginning of the 2022 season, the discussions won’t end. In the end, the title was won for the first time by Red Bulls’ Verstappen after a gritty fight and a bit of a luck.
It is his first F1 title, the first won by a Dutchman, the first for Red Bull since the 2013 season. But, as we all saw and we all know it was not plain sailing. Some might even have thought that it was game over as soon as it was lights out after Lewis Hamilton’s lead.
There were so many replays of the start and we saw that Hamilton got a better start than Verstappen. The stats stated that he reacted a fifth of a second quicker than pole-man. And then there was that moment in Turn 6 where a lot of them thought the Brit escaped it.
Race start, what really happened:
Verstappen: “The start itself was a bit poor. I dropped the clutch and there was just not a lot of grip. So, I don’t know why but suddenly I just saw Lewis shooting by, so very low grip and I don’t really understand why that was the case. So that was, of course, not ideal. And no, I wouldn’t have caught him. They just had too much pace in the car, even for me with fresher tyres, it just didn’t look like it was going to happen.”
Turn 6 and “that” lap one pass:
Verstappen: “Yeah, I had a good run and I went for the inside. I didn’t even lock-up, I just made the corner, did my line and then, of course, he chose to use the escape route and basically gained an advantage by just staying in front by quite a bit. And nothing happened, so I just focused on myself and continued.”
Verstappen did feel aggrieved and he might have had a point as the commentators did expect Hamilton to pull over but of course it was not the case. Even Red Bull did give vent but they like the Dutchman knuckled down and got on with it.
In fairness, they had 57 more laps to go and Lap 53 saw Red Bull thrown a life line with Nicholas Latifi putting it in the barrier. So much happened from that moment and until the safety pulled off the track as the race director almost used his discretion.
With nothing to lose, Verstappen pitted for softs under the safety car, while Hamilton was still on his hards from Lap 15. From track position side, the Brit couldn’t have pitted and he was indeed not too happy with the decision being on an old set.
And of course with Verstappen ending up behind Hamilton – at one stage side by side – it was going to the wire after race director allowed only the cars between them to be unlapped. But then again the driver at the heads call the shots when it’s a re-start.
Re-start:
Verstappen: “Of course you try to react to what he’s doing, so I tried to be not too far away, and of course then I could see he was struggling quite a bit for the hard tyres to warm up and I had the grip, so I could stay relatively close and of course on the soft tyres, yeah, but on the first lap you could clearly see I had more grip but then, after Turn 5, two very long straights where you have a chance to come back and it was all pretty close between us. Everything was clear so why would you then run another lap behind the safety car? It’s just when everything is clear you have to release the track so I think that’s a fair point from the race direction. Of course, now it worked for me but it can also work against me, I know that.”
Last lap pass:
Verstappen: “Of course, I’m very happy with how everything turned out and also the tyres and everything went very smoothly. It was very cool of course, very hectic. Like I said, you know, I even had a cramp in the last lap, so it just summed up the whole season which is completely unpredictable and crazy throughout the whole year.”
Before all this played out, the race was under control of Hamilton who pulled away into the distance. Verstappen had to pit early to switch from softs and it seemed like it was all over for him. But a tremendous effort put in by Sergio Perez where he took the fight to and pressurise Hamilton, it brought the Red Bull into action again.
If it was over any point:
Verstappen: “Of course it didn’t look great but I always said to myself I’m just going to push until the end and I’m not going to look like it’s too easy out there and I think that also kept me within that range, where I couldn’t do a free stop under the safety car or whatever so in a way, I was just trying to push myself until the end.”
Checo’s help:
Verstappen: “I think without Checo I wouldn’t be sitting here right now because then they would have had a pit gap with the safety car and stuff so definitely Checo was driving incredibly. I mean of course, when we started working together, it was always difficult to know exactly of course how it’s going to work out but very early on already, Checo is just an amazing human being, not only just to work with F1 but just a super-nice person, real family man as well and yeah, I have had a lot of good times with him and you could see he really means it and he means well and it’s very rare to have a teammate like that and again, it just showed today he was a team player and I really hope that we can continue this for a long time.”
It was a shocking end certainly which left Mercedes unhappy. They may had a point and they duly protested but the FIA turned them down. The intention is still to appeal with time at hand to understand things as we wait for the decision.
Protest:
Verstappen: “Not much really, to say about that. I think it also sums up a little bit the season.”
The season just finished was like a soap opera. Some say it was the greatest ever. Perhaps or perhaps not but it is definitely up there with some of the classics that we have had in the past. Possibly because there were so many disagreements and incidents might account for it.
The story was written by Neil Farell
Here’s side-by-side of their battle: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video.side-by-side-verstappen-and-hamiltons-final-lap-shootout-for-drivers-title.1718961184355366048.html
Here’s a view from Daniel Ricciardo: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video.ricciardos-unique-view-of-verstappen-and-hamiltons-final-lap-battle.1719032612921491287.html
Here’s what others and Lewis Hamilton thought of the situation
Here’s what the FIA stated while dismissing the protest and Mercedes’ appeal
Here’s the Abu Dhabi test line-up
