CHILL TO THE MAX
Verstappen opens up on his F1 dogfight with Hamilton
IF MAX VERSTAPPEN becomes Formula One world champion, which he might just succeed in doing tomorrow, he would reign as a king without airs and graces.
That much was clear as he entered the sweltering paddock by the Red Sea yesterday.
Whereas his only rival for the crown, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton constantly plays a game of cat and mouse with the photographers, trying to outwit them by taking a side entrance here and a detour there, before parading his latest outlandish outfit, Verstappen walks in as if he were about to start up his runabout in the garage of a suburban semi.
Just his physio Brad Scanes is alongside him. Both carry rucksacks. There is no entourage. No security detail. He flashes an acknowledgement to the odd person he knows who catches his eye as he moves in a purposeful manner to the Red Bull motorhome.
The heady facts that confront the Dutchman this weekend do not appear to weigh him down. He leads Hamilton, the seventime world champion and most decorated racer in history, by eight points with only this inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand
Prix and the Abu Dhabi finale next week remaining.
If Verstappen should score 18 points or more than Hamilton in tomorrow’s race on this terrifyingly fast 3.8-mile course, he will become, aged 24, the new champion.
But this narrow Jeddah Corniche Circuit is meant to favour Mercedes. Its long straights and flying corners suggest as much, as did practice yesterday with Hamilton fastest in both sessions. Verstappen was second and fourth best.
Verstappen admits: ‘It’s quite a dangerous track. There are so many blind corners so if someone is slow around one you wouldn’t know it until you got there.
‘I expect a bit of trouble. There could be some big shunts.
‘I wonder who signs off these kinds of tracks. I mean, great idea. I guess they have $90million reasons why.’
He is alluding to the fee paid to Formula One for the race’s place on the calendar. A few hours after he uttered his prophecy of mayhem, Charles Leclerc lost control of his Ferrari, at Turn 22, to bring the day’s running to a premature end. The driver was fine; his car was a mess.
I remind Verstappen that a maiden championship victory would place him in a fresh limelight, grant a new status, intensify global fame.
Verstappen adds: ‘I am not in Formula One to be famous. I wish I could be anonymous. I wish I could run outside with my pants down.
‘I don’t think of Formula One as a big game or something to make your life glamorous.’
Verstappen has studiously avoided becoming embroiled in any verbal feuds with Hamilton, despite the ongoing bad blood between their respective teams.
He says: ‘I do the best I can and if the whole package comes together, I will win.’
It is a simple philosophy, only astounding for its certainty of outcome. But is also a truthful one, free of pretence in any direction.
‘Whatever Lewis says doesn’t bother me,’ adds Verstappen.
‘It shouldn’t because I am focused on myself and know that Christian [Horner, team principal] and the whole team are working together, so I don’t need to think about what anyone else says.’
But what if, after driving so brilliantly, Verstappen doesn’t succeed in claiming the title this season? ‘Try again next year,’ says the man with a shrug.