Verstappen beat Hamilton in the final lap of the last race of the season to clinch his maiden world championship title and deny what would have been the eighth crown for the Briton.
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Former Formula 1 driver turned television commentator and pundit David Coulthard felt that Max Verstappen has succeeded in getting a psychological advantage over his rival Lewis Hamilton. Verstappen beat Hamilton in the final lap of the last race of the season to clinch his maiden world championship title and deny what would have been the eighth crown for the Briton. Coulthard says that the manner in which he pulled off the victory will give him the edge going into 2022. After spending the season chasing Hamilton, the Dutchman finally edged him at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in a nail-biter.
Now, I’m going to enjoy this. Orange Army-you were amazing once again. I hope you all enjoy this as much as I do ?
(3/3) pic.twitter.com/xQMJ9OJ60y
— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) December 12, 2021
“He’s an exceptional human, an exceptional athlete,” Coulthard said about Verstappen in an interview with Channel 4 television. “He’s brilliant and divisive.
“Who else do we know that’s brilliant and divisive? Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher, to name but a few, so some have been able to do it.
“[Against] the might of Mercedes and Lewis, Max has had to arguably come with a different approach. His approach is: whenever there is a door partially open, he’ll go for it.
“Lewis has to keep opening up the door because he knows [Max] is coming, and that’s got in the psyche of Lewis.
“In fairness to Lewis he’s been able to win an amazing amount of championships in a very clean way,” Coulthard continued. “He hasn’t really had too much controversy.”
Coulthard says that Verstappen’s fearless attitude is because he was brought up by his father. The 24-year-old has bulldozed his way through the junior championships and now stands at the pinnacle of F! Because of his “fear nobody” attitude.
“Max has had to fight for it and has been a winner all the way through, skipping some of the lower formulas to come into F1,” he explained.
“He fears nobody. That’s not a part of his psyche. The thing that I find most impressive is that if there’s a gap, he goes for it. There’s not even a doubt.
“When I was racing I used to weigh up, ‘Should I risk it now, should I not risk it?’ He just goes for it. It really is quite special.”
But Hamilton is still there on top when it comes to top honours. He has the most wins (103) by an F1 driver in history and has a record seven world championships, level with Michael Schumacher.
Meanwhile Verstappen has topped the annual list of F1 bosses’ top drivers of 2021. The Dutchamn has arrived on the list several times but has remained on the second spot each time before finally topping the list this year.
Verstappen beat Hamilton to top the list, for the first time since his entry into the sport. The 24-year-old scored 213 points to Hamilton’s 192, outscoring Briton by 21 points.
