Last update article: Wednesday, December 29
After a year of racing, Max Verstappen has crowned himself Formula 1 world champion. According to many people, this was one of the most exciting seasons in the history of Formula 1. The last race in particular was one for the history books, because of the crazy last round.
Max Verstappen’s season
The Formula 1 year was one for the history books. It was a neck-and-neck race between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton from the start to the end of the season. Although Max performed very well at the start of the season, Lewis Hamilton remained close behind him in the points. At the end of the season, Mercedes had put a new engine in the car, which made the car a lot faster than the rest of the teams. This put Lewis Hamilton back on the same level as Max Verstappen. They were tied in points just before the last race, so it had to be decided in the last race in Abu Dhabi, which Max Verstappen eventually won.
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
The drivers had to start the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with exactly the same number of points, so this promised to be an exciting fight. The mission for both was to cross the finish line first.
Due to the Mercedes engine change, Hamilton was the favorite to win the race. Although Max had the fastest lap during qualifying and was therefore allowed to start first, he was already overtaken by Hamilton at the start. After about 8 laps Max decided to change his tires and because of this Hamilton also went in to do a tire change so he stayed ahead of Max. In the end Hamilton had gained a big lead over Max, but he was still 2nd behind Perez (Max Verstappen’s teammate). Perez made sure that Max was able to close the gap again by holding Hamilton up as much as possible.
After the gap was closed again, Hamilton drove away again. When Antonio Giovinazzi pulled his car along the track and a virtual safety car approached, Hamilton was unable to enter the pitlane without losing his position. Max did, he chose to use newer tires to close the gap with Hamilton. In the beginning this seemed to work, but the gap turned out to be too big between the two.
After it looked like Hamilton would become world champion, Nicholas Latifi crashed. This caused a safety car and Max and his team were able to come up with something again: they made a pit stop & switched to the softest tyre. Hamilton chose not to do this and so had old hard tires under his car. After the safety car was over, Verstappen was right behind Hamilton with better tires. Max did not hesitate and at the first moment to overtake he seized his chance. Now all he had to do was defend first place and he succeeded. He was the first to cross the finish line and became the first Dutchman to become world champion in Formula 1!
Protest Mercedes
After the race it became tense again, because Mercedes had filed a protest. They did not agree with the actions of the race management during the safety car period. The laggards were allowed to drive away between Max and Lewis, so that Max came right behind Lewis. But in the end the protest was rejected and the Red Bull Racing team was able to celebrate the victory.
Online performance
Max Verstappen is now Formula 1 world champion, but this is not the only title that Max has taken. He has been voted the world’s best Real Pro Sim Racer. He is now also the best driver online! Earlier, Max Verstappen has said that sim racing also helps him with Formula 1. Is this perhaps his secret?
Image: morio, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons