It couldn’t get more exciting for the fans. Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen go into the final Formula 1 race of the season with a tie. ntv expert Felix Görner thinks of some unfair means. He predicts extreme thrills. For the pilots, the teams – and for everyone else.
“Formula 1 is currently experiencing Senna versus Prost in the 21st century. It’s a fight with an open visor and sharpened knives.” The spectacle in the motorsport premier class is so big this season that superlatives are needed. And there is little greater rivalry in Formula 1 history than between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, according to ntv expert Felix Görner. For him, the arch enemies of the 90s are the role models for the current rivals, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.
Rivals who created the ultimate showdown. The Red Bull driver brought an eight point lead to Saudi Arabia, and Hamilton swallowed exactly those eight points. As the winner of the race with the fastest lap. If there is a tie, it goes to the last race in Abu Dhabi. Whoever crosses the finish line before the others at this year’s Grand Prix Final is world champion. If no one crosses the finish line, Verstappen is world champion because he has won one more race. So easy. And so risky.
“We will experience a high noon,” says Görner. He is sure: the Dutchman will leave no stone unturned. “If Verstappen has the opportunity to clear away Hamilton, he will instinctively use this chance. He is ahead because of his race victories, if both go out – and he does not get a penalty – Max Verstappen will be the world champion in 2021. This remainder is in his brain. “
Liver hooks like in the Ali boxing match?
A danger that the seven-time world champion Hamilton apparently also has on his screen. “He’s over the limit, for sure,” he said after beating his opponent. “I really have to keep a cool head out there, but that was really difficult,” said the Briton. “I’ve raced against a lot of drivers in my life. In 28 years I’ve met a lot of different characters, and some up there are over the limit. The rules don’t apply to them or they don’t think about the rules.”
Twice, on the new course in Jeddah, Verstappen had overtaken Hamilton unfairly in turn one. He had to return his position twice. His braking maneuver on lap 37 caused the almost escalation, when Hamilton slammed him into the car and had to continue driving with a damaged front wing. Hamilton called the situation “Braketesting”, was very annoyed – and won anyway. Verstappen subsequently received a time penalty of ten seconds, not enough to lose second place to Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas.
A scene that caused Toto Wolff to escalate, who threw away his headphones in anger in the paddock. Nevertheless, he is betting on a fair final. “I don’t think it will escalate,” said the Mercedes team boss. “Today there were so many warning shots for everyone involved that it will and has to come off cleanly. Nobody can afford to come up with a result that was not achieved on the track.”
Görner is not so sure: “It also reminds me of strong boxing matches where there was a favorite – Muhammad Ali – and Ali is Lewis Hamilton in this case. But Ali was also beaten. By hooking the liver, by nasty tricks, with everyone Washed water. The teams are also at the boiling point. ”
“To remove the king from the throne”
Mercedes against Red Bull. All-time winner against the team that celebrated the last world championship title in 2013 with Sebastian Vettel as driver. And even more just Hamilton against Verstappen. At the age of 36 seven-time world champion and record race winner against the twelve-year-old who once conquered Formula 1 as a super talent and now has to prove that he is mature and ready for his first big triumph. For Görner, the two generations of drivers are shown here: “Hamilton, who drives more reasonably, but still irritates to the blood, and Verstappen, the young upstart, who has no experience of world championship duels, who works against the king. He has to take the king to be thrown off the throne by all means. “
Over the course of the season, it looked as if he would be able to do that easily. Up to and including the Grand Prix in Mexico. At the beginning of November, Verstappen had a comfortable lead. Hardly anyone talked about whether he would become world champion, but rather about when the title would be certain for him. But then Hamilton struck back. Victories in Brazil, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, thanks to the new Mercedes engine, thanks to cleverness and nerves of steel.
Hamilton has better nerves, but …
That could still play a decisive role, Görner analyzes: “If you look at the nerves, Verstappen wobbles more. We saw it with his serious mistake in qualifying. It shows that he is vulnerable, that he is under pressure and that he made mistakes The king, on the other hand, has not made any mistakes so far. Above all, he does not allow himself to be psychologically provoked by Verstappen. ” Görner is certain: “A driver other than Hamilton would have pissed Verstappen for a long time, but Hamilton doesn’t do that because he has the class and the psychological strength not to get involved in these games. So Verstappen almost has him in ride in a fateful duel. “
It would be the poisoned end of a bitter duel in which nobody wants to back off. Hamilton and Mercedes are dissatisfied, but Verstappen and Red Bull also feel they have been treated unfairly. “A lot has happened that I don’t agree with,” said the Dutchman after the race. Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko complained about the world motor sport federation Fia: “You cannot measure by two different standards. If a seven-time world champion misjudges himself, that can happen, but not to our detriment.” And then the ten-second penalty hadn’t even been pronounced.
Abu Dhabi becomes the ultimate showdown. Two racing teams, two drivers, of cleverness, uncompromising attitude, nerves of wire. But who is running the race? “My prognosis is that Verstappen will become world champion,” predicts Görner. “Because he has this incredible uncompromising attitude that it takes to overthrow the king from the throne.”