I was there for some great F1 title battles but Hamilton v Verstappen is best of all
I was racing in Formula One when Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost were vying for the title and when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill went wheel to wheel, but without doubt Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen’s battle this season has been the best I have ever seen. Their season-decider finale at Abu Dhabi will bring the curtain down on what has been an absolute epic.
This championship has something extra exciting about it because you have two of the best gladiators that we have even seen going head-to-head and it has been unmissable. The way this championship has gone up and down, that’s what you want as a race fan. You don’t want to go into a weekend thinking it’s going to be Max or it’s going to be Lewis, you want the uncertainty, the thrill of knowing you’ve got to watch it right down to the last lap, seeing the skills of these two drivers tested to the maximum.
It has been a season made by these two. With Lewis on seven titles and possibly getting an eighth, he is, I believe, the greatest we have ever seen but this year has shown we now have two drivers who are going to be counted as the greatest in the sport. Greatest is a word that is controversial, especially in comparing generations, but these two are so raw, so rare, it’s wonderful to be witnessing this.
We hear about Stirling and Fangio but the way these two are going at it right now is absolutely fantastic and it has drawn us in, every single race.
Of course, there have always been special ones in F1 but it is rare to have two extraordinarily talented drivers as we have now. We have the youngster trying to get his first title and the seventime champion still able to take it to the young gun, to outfox him, they are pushing and bringing out the best of each other.
They stack up for this final showdown as two mighty competitors. Lewis has become more complete, beyond just qualifying and the race. When he was younger you never heard him query a strategy call, now he questions them. He hasn’t always been right but it shows he is so aware of what is going on underneath him and he is trying to feed that back. He has always had this uncanny, natural talent right back to that debut season in 2007 and he is undoubtedly way better now than he was then, yet I am almost still in awe when he puts together some of those special laps. He is complete but you still get the “wow!” factor from watching him.
Max came in like Lewis, like Senna and Prost. In their first couple of races you noticed he was special. But he has grown so much in the last couple of seasons and more so this year. Previously he was not under pressure because he didn’t have the car able to win the world championship but he could win the odd race. This year he has been given the car to fight for that world championship and has taken it to Lewis.
Not once has he looked out of his depth or not on top of it. His mental strength is just beyond belief in many respects. Max alone has brought back racing to F1 and that is a very powerful thing but he has gone over the top in the last couple of races. He has the mentality of win-at-all costs and that is his weakness. If he had been smart in Silverstone and Monza, and given space to Lewis and finished the races behind Lewis, he would probably be the champion already.
I love watching them both, they both excite me, they both have a fantastic ability behind the wheel and they will be fully tested with the maximum amount of pressure. There has been pressure all season long but this is a different story, now they know it will be won or lost here.
For historical reasons I can’t help but think it would be great for Lewis to take it. It would be his eighth title and it has been a monumental comeback. He has, as always, got the best out of himself in the season run-in, nonetheless Max too has hung in there admirably.
Forced to pick a winner? Well, that’s the big question but the guy I want to win is the guy who will do it with the most skill and keeping between the white lines, not running off overtaking, keeping it clean.
So I’m going to go for Lewis because at the moment he has the slightly smarter race-craft. He is not going to get involved because he is aware of how championships are won, by being fair and fast. But it ain’t going to be easy. It’s going to be super tough and that’s what’s been so brilliant about this season. Epic and impossible to predict.