Formula 1 has a new World Champion and he goes by the name of Max Verstappen after the Dutchman secured the victory at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on the final lap of the season, but of course it was not without a ton of controversy. For the majority of the race, it looked like Lewis Hamilton would close this dramatic season with a record breaking eighth world title, then it all changed.
Despite achieving pole and starting on the softer tyres, a dreadful start by Verstappen saw him lose the lead almost instantly, as Hamilton entered turn one at the front and quickly began to build the gap to his rival. He looked near unstoppable. Importantly for Red Bull, Sergio Perez jumped Lando Norris at the start, making it two Red Bulls against the Mercedes. Then, turn six of the opening lap saw the first batch of the now usual controversy and inconsistency of the stewards. Verstappen had the slipstream heading into the tight corner, and flung his car down the inside in his usual style, Hamilton was put wide and travelled across the run off area to keep position. This angered Verstappen and Red Bull as they felt Hamilton had to give the place back. The stewards thought differently and thought that Hamilton had already sacrificed his time gained – which was a debatable decision.
Verstappen was left rather unhappy with the decision, and could not match the pace of his rival in front, leaving him struggling on his soft tyres before making his first pit stop. Mercedes would respond by pitting Hamilton a lap later, yet he was still in control of the race and pulled around an eight second gap. Perez now played his part. Obviously, Red Bull left the Mexican out on track in an attempt to hold up Hamilton – a plan that worked perfectly. Hamilton and Perez would battle for two laps at every turn, with Perez quickly making his way back past Hamilton at every chance before parking his car on the apex’s. Hamilton would lose nearly eight seconds during this time, leaving Verstappen on the edge of the DRS against his rival. Understandably, Red Bull and Verstappen were very happy with Perez’ work.
Yet, Verstappen could do nothing about Hamilton, as the Brit once again began to drive off into the distance. The Virtual Safety Car was then introduced after Antonio Giovinazzi parked his Alfa Romeo on the sidelines, whilst Toto Wolff begged the safety car to remain in the pits – which should not be allowed by okay. Whilst Mercedes decided to keep track position and leave Hamilton out, Red Bull decided to bring Verstappen into the pits for a new set of hard tyres. He had just under twenty laps to close around 18 seconds, were we going to watch another version of Spain, or Paul Ricard?
Well, no. The Red Bull man could only close the gap to 11 seconds, whilst also setting the fastest lap of the race. But, it looked like for the world that this dramatic title fight was going to have Hamilton crowned. Then, it changed.
With just a handful of laps to go, Nicholas Latifi tasted the wall at turn 14, bringing out the safety car. Mercedes again decided to keep track position and keep Hamilton out, whilst Red Bull had to take the gamble, and hope that there will be more racing laps – despite Verstappen having a number of lapped cars in-between himself and Hamilton. Initially, the lapped cars were not permitted to unlap themselves, such is the normal procedure under a safety car period, due to the limited laps remaining. This meant Verstappen would have to pass at least five cars before he could even start to chase Hamilton. It was all looking rosy for that eighth title.
Then, Michael Masi, the stewards and the FIA made a mess of things. Suddenly, a change of heart was made, allowing just the lapped cars between the two title rivals to unlap themselves, with the safety car period ending with just a lap to go. An interesting choice, and most likely for the show which again is a debatable decision. The final round of the season, the final lap of the season. Hamilton on old hards and Verstappen on softs. Of course, the place erupted as the race restarted for one final lap. Verstappen could stick to Hamilton through the opening turns, before sending one down the inside of turn five, seemingly catching Hamilton off guard. Hamilton would come back against Verstappen down the second back straight as the two faced turn nine side by side, wheel to wheel, inches away from another. Verstappen maintained the lead, and crossed the line 2.2s ahead of his rival to achieve his first Formula 1 Drivers Championship, to the dismay and frustration of Hamilton and Mercedes. A film could not write it better.
Sadly, it was a soar ending to an incredible season which was marred by inconsistency throughout by the ones who lay the law down. Of course, the season ended with controversy – it just had to.
As gutting as this was for Hamilton, who somehow remained dignified in his post race interview, this debacle cannot take away Verstappen’s achievement. This season was filled with 22 races, with the Dutchman securing ten wins, ten pole positions and 18 podium finishes. He had a bad hand when it came to luck for most of the season, before the racing gods paid him back. A very worthy Champion, without a doubt.
Remarkably, Verstappen and Hamilton finished 1-2 fourteen times in 2021 – showing their beyond human levels of performance.
However, it is not all doom and gloom for Mercedes. With Perez quietly retiring under the safety car period, Hamilton’s second place finish along with Valtteri Bottas’ lowly sixth place finish – Mercedes wrapped up their eighth consecutive Constructors title, a frankly unreal achievement. Record breakers.
Anyway, away from the front, Carlos Sainz surely ended his debut season with Ferrari in style by impressively finishing the race in third, promoting himself to fifth in the standings, jumping Norris and Charles Leclerc in the process. Which is a strong feat in itself, but even more considering it was his first season in the red machine. Leclerc’s race was showing potential with his battle against Norris and his teammate, but a pit stop under the VSC did not pay off and left the Monegasque finishing in tenth. However, it was still enough for Ferrari to secure third in the Constructors Championship, an important recovery after their dismal 2020 campaign.
AlphaTauri certainly had a blinder of a weekend, with Yuki Tsunoda achieving his best result of his rookie season with fourth, with Pierre Gasly just behind in fifth. Both cars would find themselves trailing Bottas for the final lap dash, but a lovely dive from Tsunoda would see him past Bottas at turn six, before Gasly followed suit at turn nine.
Norris was involved in that fight, but his rough luck in the second half of the season kicked in again. After losing third place at lights out before running wide at turn one, the McLaren man seemed to have a competitive dual against the pace of the Ferrari’s, but another slow puncture halted his progress and forced him into an extra stop. He would end his season in seventh, and dropped behind Sainz in the standings. But, he did manage to finish a single point ahead of Leclerc, and achieved the most points for a McLaren driver since Hamilton’s tally in 2012.
Despite losing to Ferrari and finishing fourth in the Constructors, McLaren were the only team this season to achieve a 1-2 race finish.
Fernando Alonso recovered from his frustrating Saturday by securing eighth place after heading an intense battle between himself, Esteban Ocon, Leclerc, Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo. The eighth and ninth finish for the Alpine drivers secured their fifth place in the standings, getting the better of AlphaTauri.
Vettel missed out on the points by 1.4s, which pretty much sums up his first season with Aston Martin, as Lance Stroll trailed behind in 13th, with Ricciardo in the middle of a green sandwich after another tough Sunday for the Australian.
Finally, Mick Schumacher was the final actual finisher in 14th, as Nikita Mazepin could not start the race after a positive COVID-19 test before the race.
Despite retiring, Perez was technically classified in 15th, but really was just one of the names on the sidelines along with both Williams and Alfa Romeo’s.
Williams had Latifi in the wall, with George Russell suffering an engine issue after 26 laps. Alfa Romeo had both of their departing drivers end their F1 careers early, with Giovinazzi suffering a mechanical issue. But it was Kimi Raikkonen’s retirement which made many fans sad. After his long and mega career, the maverick that is Kimi saw his day end early after a lovely little brake failure heading into turn six. Iceman out.
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