Formula 1 news: I believe the past few days, well, the whole year actually, have been kind to Verstappen in general. He has achieved so much in 2021 that he cannot believe it. At least I cannot.
Red Bull finished last year on a roll by winning at Yas Marina and sending out a message to rivals about the fight that will follow next year. And rightfully so, it did.
Ever since Verstappen entered F1 back in 2015, he’s been the one to watch out for, but it took him years before he could become a genuine title threat to his counterpart. In this case, Lewis Hamilton.
Max has been in commanding form all season long, not to mention the kind of maturity and consistency he’s showcased. So much so, that in eighteen times he’s stood on the podium, he’s either finished P1 or P2!
Verstappen, the best driver of 2021?
For me, he is. There’s no doubt in that whatsoever. You might say that he didn’t deserve to win, but I say, he did. Especially because he’s grown so much, Red Bull has finally given him a car worthy of winning the title. And Honda, well, the Japanese engine manufacturer outdid itself in 2021.
Global motorsport publication, Autosport, recently ran a survey of nine F1 team principals that had a list of their top 10 drivers of the year. Nine, because Ferrari didn’t participate. I am telling you, the Scuderia are wasting no time in things like these. Instead, they are going all out for 2022.
In case you still need a reminder, the principals who took part in this survey were Toto Wolff (Mercedes), Christian Horner (Red Bull), Andreas Seidl (McLaren), Laurent Rossi (Alpine), Otmar Szafnauer (Aston Martin), Fred Vasseur (Alfa Romeo), Franz Tost (AlphaTauri), Jost Capito (Williams) and Gunther Steiner (Haas).
Each of the ten drivers picked individually by the team bosses was scored according to how F1 does it – 25 points to P1 and a single point to the driver in P10. With that in mind, Max Verstappen scored a total of 188 points compared to Sir Lewis’ 174. Big margin.
Rounding out the top five were Lando Norris in P3, Carlos Sainz in P4, and Fernando Alonso in P5. The three drivers scored 100, 70, and 63 points, respectively.
Christian Horner in awe of Max
Who can blame Christian! Red Bull’s boss recently said: “I think we’ve just given him a better car and he’s made great use of it. He’s finished every race either first or second bar one where he had half his car missing in Budapest. And the statistics talk for themselves. I think what you forget is the amount of pressure that there’s been building and building through the championship. The way that he’s dealt with and coped with that has been inspirational.”
