Max Verstappen Named Number One F1 Driver in 2021

- Max & lewis on podium

Lewis Hamilton lost this year’s F1 championship title by a strand. He was quite a bit behind Verstappen in the rankings but he closed the gap with back-to-back victories in Sao Paulo, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. A controversial decision that has baffled the Mercedes team and online gambling enthusiasts alike, the driver was “robbed” of his victory at Abu Dhabi - and his eighth title.

And if this wasn’t enough, his rival Max Verstappen didn’t only win the title of the F1 World Champion this year - his first - but also the votes of the majority of F1 team bosses. He was named the number one F1 driver in 2021.

An (informal) poll

Of course, this title is not an official one for measurable achievements. Instead, it is a poll that Formula One sends out to its teams’ bosses in which they ask them to rank the drivers participating in the popular tournament. The points system used by the team bosses is similar to the one used when ranking them on the racetrack - each of them can get a maximum of 25 points.

This year’s poll revealed that Max Verstappen was the F1 driver who impressed team bosses the most, collecting a total of 213 points. Lewis Hamilton, a seasoned veteran and winner of seven titles, came in second with 192. In third place, we find Lando Norris, the 22-year-old British-Belgian diver who achieved 10 successive point scores and three podiums this season, followed by Carlos Sainz who had his best-ever year in the drivers’ rankings. It was also his first year at Team Ferrari.

Completing the top 10 we find Charles Leclerc, Fernando Alonso, Pierre Gasly, George Russell, Valtteri Bottas, and Esteban Ocon, who secured his first victory in the F1 this season.

An epic season

This year’s F1 season was, for lack of a better word, epic. Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have given the world one of the fiercest and most thrilling competitions in the drivers’ championship.

Lewis Hamilton deserves all the credit he can get for his performance in the last season, giving the sport everything he’s got and showing the world what it means to be an experienced veteran. Verstappen, in turn, deserves all the credit for keeping cool under pressure and being as aggressive on the tarmac as necessary to achieve this amazing performance.

Fernando Alonso says Lewis Hamilton deserves more credit for his success 👏 pic.twitter.com/Qg1p7ma7ev

— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) May 12, 2021

What’s next?

One of the greatest questions for next year is “will Hamilton retire or not”? There has been some talk about him walking away from the sport after 14 years, and these were amplified after the controversial Abu Dhabi incident. Several big names in the sport, including Bernie Ecclestone himself, have chimed in - but all Hamilton had to say about it was “we’ll see”.