I really have very little sympathy for Max or Lewis when it comes to the poor sportsmanship shown between the two. It's been there all season and has just been getting worse as the season has gone on. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of this style of racing. It's what every GOAT driver has had in common. Senna, Prost, Schumacher, etc, they all raced dirty when a championship was on the line.
But so far in the turbo-hybrid, there's been no unfettered championship battle. Sure, Hamilton did lose a close one to Rosberg, but it was an intra-team battle that was ruled under the iron fist of Toto Wolff. Surmised to say, all but one of Lewis Hamilton's championships have come with Mercedes and it's total domination of the competition. His car has never seriously been under threat from any other manufacturer's car since the era begun. He has comfortably won every Mercedes championship of his career, usually mathematically clinching the title (usually from his teammate) a number of races before the finale. The truth is, Hamilton has not faced a true title challenge since his first championship in 2008.
And as fans, previous to witnessing the domination of Mercedes, we were treated with 4 years of domination by Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull. And the story went just about the same. The sport hasn't seen a true title fight in 13 years. And much longer since the fight was between two historic drivers.
Now, 2021, enters Max Verstappen. The ultra-aggressive prodigy, trained by a borderline abusive ex-F1 father. He has all the attributes of a title fight driver; extreme talent and a win-at-all cost mentality. Now, in the first year he has a car that can truly compete. Max has consistently tested Lewis's desire to take it the edge. Dive-bombing corners, breaking incredibly late, 'im taking this corner or were both crashing'. Lewis yielded to him early on, because why not? His car and skill have always proven superior beyond challenge. Would he really want to risk a crash to some would-be early season hero?
Flash forward to Silverstone, Verstappen's lead is at its greatest point of the season. Hamilton is on his heels and Mercedes is acutely aware they are in the midst of an actual title fight. Hamilton can no longer afford to yield to am aggressive Verstappen. First lap, Hamilton gets the slipstream behind Verstappen going into the extremely high speed Copse. He sticks the nose of the car on the inside, breaks late, and understeers into Max Verstappen, sending him careening into the barriers at 150mph. With his main title rival out, and only a 10 second penalty to overcome, Hamilton goes on to win relatively unchallenged and in one fell swoop, erases 25 points of his deficit.
At that moment, Verstappen learned a lesson he has carried with him the rest of the season: track position first, rules later. He paid Hamilton back at Monza, sending his car fast into the inside of a sausage curb turn, taking Hamilton and himself out in the process. Between these tension building incidents, Red Bull and Mercedes launched competing investigations aimed at each other, their pit crews stopped clearing the way for one another, rules started being skirted; the title fight was in full swing.
Lately, things have not been going Red Bulls way however. Mercedes second driver, Bottas, carried too much speed into the first corner at the Hungarian grand prix and understeered into both Red Bulls, effectively ending Verstappen's race. Mercedes have also taken an advantage of a loophole in the engine rules, fitting a higher running engine that has given them a clear pace advantage at the end of the season. Verstappen, so dominant through most of the season, has now been cornered through no fault of his own. I see a desperate driver, who feels wronged for the races and points stolen from him by his rival team. He's a driver being pillaged by the British-dominated media of F1. If he's going to win the drivers title, it's going to from his ability to drive harder and more recklessly than Hamilton is willing to. He is not driving with an eye on the rules or sportsmanship. He would send both him and Hamilton into the wall if it meant walking away as the champion. Maybe F1 has changed, and he should rightly be ostracized for his dangerous driving style. But it shouldn't be forgotten that we praised previous champions and title fights for the exact kind of driving were seeing from Max Verstappen.