Max Verstappen’s World Title: How a Grueling Battle Turned Into a Dream Come True

The 24-year-old said, “I was hoping for miracles in my head, but I was also very focused on just trying to do the best I could.”

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Max Verstappen stood tall on the stage at the FIA Prize-Giving Gala in Paris, hoisting the World Championship trophy to the crowd for the first time since securing the title.

As he lowered the hardware, the Dutch driver looked at the silver object for a few beats, seemingly lost in the moment. But no one could blame him for wanting to take a second to soak in this experience. After all, this was his “life goal achieved.”

“When I saw these three go-karts up here, everything comes back—traveling all over Europe with that one goal,” Verstappen said. “It’s first getting to Formula One but then actually being successful in Formula One, win races and fight for that title.”

There were times on Thursday night when the 24-year-old did not bother hiding his smile as he recounted the highs and lows of the 2021 season and how he almost did not receive the award. It was his most successful Formula One campaign to date—10 wins, 10 pole positions and 18 podium finishes. But it was a grueling battle to the end against Mercedes and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.

The young Red Bull driver held a 19 point lead over Hamilton after the Mexico City Grand Prix, but the British star went on to win the next three races, which left the title rivals tied for points heading into the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

“What a crazy race in general. If they would have told me that was going to happen the night before, I probably would have had a heart attack, and I couldn’t compete.”

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Hamilton led most of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix despite Verstappen starting with the pole position and Red Bull's attempts to unseat the Mercedes driver. Verstappen later revealed that they just did not have the pace for most of the competition. 

It looked like the 36-year-old had put enough space between him and Verstappen and that he was on track to win his record-breaking eighth world championship. 

“Slowly of course it didn’t look like it was going to happen. But I also say never stop believing until the last lap is driven and that’s really what I did,” Verstappen said Wednesday. “And then, of course, I was hoping for miracles in my head, but I was also very focused on just trying to do the best I could.”

Cue, the 24-year-old's miracle. Nicholas Latifi's rear tires seemed to let go, sending the car crashing into the wall. A safety car came out with just six laps to go. Red Bull decided to bring in Verstappen for fresh tires, but Hamilton had to stay out or else he would have sacrificed the lead.

Five lapped cars sat between Hamilton and Verstappen as the racers drove around the track behind the safety car for the final laps. Red Bull manager Christian Horner asked F1 race director Michael Masi over radio about the situation: “Why aren’t we getting these cars out of the way? We only need one racing lap.”

After the exchange in a surprising and controversial move, Masi decided on lap 57 of 58 to allow those five cars to overtake the safety car. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff yelled over the race radio to Masi about the decision as it placed Verstappen right on Hamilton's tail for a one-lap mad dash to the finish.

Wolff: “You need to reinstate the lap [57] … That’s not right."

Masi: “Toto, It’s called a motor race, OK?”

Wolff: “Sorry?”

Masi: “We went car racing.”

Per the unbroadcasted team radio, Hamilton told his race engineer Peter Bonnington, “This has been manipulated, man.”

Not all of the lapped cars were allowed to unlap themselves, creating even more confusion among the drivers. Daniel Ricciardo, Lance Stroll and Mick Schumacher were three other lapped drivers, and the first two—Ricciardo and Stroll—were in-between Verstappen in second and third-place Carlos Sainz. 

The Ferrari driver said to his race engineer, per the unbroadcasted team radio, “I tell you... Tell this Aston Martin to unlap himself. What is he doing? What are these two cars doing?”

Stroll quickly got out of the way of Sainz when the blue flags were waved on the final lap. 

Ricciardo later said, per the unbroadcasted team radio: “I'm glad I'm not a part of that—whatever just happened. It seemed pretty f----- up.”

But as the confusion unfolded, Verstappen faced a different problem with his newfound position heading into one last lap—his leg was cramping, bad. He revealed on Thursday evening his excitement for corners because he could brake. That is until he overtook Hamilton and was faced with “two long straights to defend and to deal with a cramp like that is not very nice.” 

The pain he endured in the chaotic final lap was quickly replaced with ear-shattering screams as he crossed the finish line. 

“I’ve never had so many people screaming into my earpiece so I think I’m still a bit deaf to this day,” Verstappen said at the gala. “...For everyone, what it meant, especially after all these years of domination from Mercedes when no one had a chance, to finally have a fight, I think everyone wanted that, especially, of course, I wanted that.” 

PA Images/Sipa USA

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Verstappen said Wednesday during an exclusive virtual roundtable that he was not surprised when Mercedes filed protests over the ending of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix "just because of how the season already panned out up until the last race." 

Formula One stewards may have dismissed both of Mercedes' protests concerning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the controversial restart, upholding that Max Verstappen is the winner and 2021 World Champion, within hours of the season finale ending. However, Mercedes decided to appeal, a process that could have taken months to resolve. 

For the rest of the week, uncertainty hung over Verstappen's head as Mercedes filed an appeal, waiting until Thursday evening to finally hold the trophy. But, that's not unusual for Formula One. World champions have to wait to receive the trophy until the gala, and this year's protests showcase the main reason why. 

When asked about the uncertainty, Verstappen said he was fine. 

“I don't even think about it too much because I do feel like the world champion and doesn't matter what they try to do,” Verstappen said. “You know, we won it on track. We won it when there was a green flag, green light and we pass them on track, and they will never be able to take that away from me anyway.” 

Team principal Christian Horner, hoarse from celebrating, maintained on Wednesday that this “isn’t a dispute between Red Bull and Mercedes," but rather between Mercedes and the FIA. 

“When you look at the whole season and a lot of people are caught up in the actions of the last five laps of Abu Dhabi,” Horner said, “but when you look at the 22 races, Max is without a shadow of a doubt, an extremely deserving world champion.”

When asked if he'd feel differently if Verstappen was in Hamilton's shoes with the 11-second lead and the call was made, Horner quickly pointed out how Verstappen still had to make the pass and highlighted the calls that went against the 24-year-old this season—Silverstone, Hungary, Azerbaijan. 

“Then moments even in Abu Dhabi where he took the lead of the race and Lewis cut the chicane at Turn Six, and there was no penalty given,” Horner said. “We felt that decisions have gone against us, more often or not. And finally, you know, in a safety car that were caused by a Williams gave us an opportunity to throw some things strategically those last five laps, and it paid off.”

The uncertainty started to dwindle as news pertaining to the controversial final laps continued to be released, and with each statement, it started to look like Verstappen would be able to hoist the trophy in Paris without any concerns.

Formula One's governing body, the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile, released a statement on Wednesday that, “Following the presentation of a report regarding the sequence of events that took place following the incident on Lap 53 of the Grand Prix and in a constant drive for improvement, the FIA President proposed to the World Motor Sport Council that a detailed analysis and clarification exercise for the future with all relevant parties will now take place.”

Then, on Thursday, Mercedes announced it withdrew its appeal, saying in a statement, “We appealed in the interest of sporting fairness, and we have since been in a constructive dialogue with the FIA and Formula 1 to create clarity for the future, so that all competitors know the rules under which they are racing, and how they will be enforced. Thus, we welcome the decision by the FIA to install a commission to thoroughly analyse what happened in Abu Dhabi and to improve the robustness of rules, governance and decision making in Formula 1. We also welcome that they have invited the teams and drivers to take part.” 

It went on to congratulate both Verstappen and Red Bull. 

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Verstappen commented on Wednesday about how the biggest takeaway of this season is that “anything is possible," adding that “everyone is beatable.” But come Thursday evening, all the focus was on the historical moment as he stood on the stage in Paris as the first Dutch champion in Formula One history at just 24 years old. 

But when you strip away the accolades, the “bad luck” that seemed to plague Verstappen throughout the season and the grueling battle that turned into a dream come true, who the Red Bull driver is is much more simple.

“I think what's always very important is just be yourself, and I find it difficult to explain what that means,” Verstappen says to Sports Illustrated. “But for me, always being honest. To say what you think, it's not always appreciated. But for me, that works really well. And you try to always work hard on and off track. Yes, most of the things people don't see, but I really love racing. I love Formula One, and I love being in the car.”