drian Newey believes Max Verstappen was “a bit out of sorts” at the end of 2021, attributing his rare blunders and haphazard defences to mounting pressure during the intense title battle with Lewis Hamilton.
Adrian Newey recalls that it took a sequence of two races for Max Verstappen to slightly lose his footing in 2021 during his battle with Lewis Hamilton. Pressured by two poor results, the Dutchman subsequently exhibited some indefensible behaviour in Brazil and Saudi Arabia.
“I think it perhaps played a bit into his championship victory in 2021. When the intensity on track, especially after Silverstone, between Lewis and Max became so intense, I think Max had very strong feelings about the Silverstone crash,” Newey remembers.
“And of course, he was leading the championship before Silverstone, then he was taken out, and then more or less taken out again in Hungary when he was hit by Valtteri [Bottas], not at all intentionally, but he was still struck and scored virtually no points. So he went from comfortably leading the championship to feeling a bit more pressure.”
“And Mercedes managed to find a lot more pace in their car towards the end of the season. So it’s always easier for the hunter than the hunted. And Max was beginning, I think, to feel a bit of pressure from the hunter.”
“In Brazil, he ran Hamilton off the track and did a brake test on the Mercedes F1 driver in Jeddah. That’s why he was, in reality, probably lucky not to be penalised for his driving in Brazil. I think it wasn’t clear, but Max was probably a bit off his game in Brazil, to be honest, so I think he was feeling it a bit.”
“Checo started to close in, and if teammates get closer, it’s not because the one behind is speeding up. It was the same with Fernando [Alonso] and Felipe Massa towards the end of 2010; they suddenly got closer because the lead driver was feeling the pressure.”
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Pressure Caused Verstappen’s Late 2021 Errors, Says Newey Pressure Caused Verstappen’s Late 2021 Errors, Says Newey
