Max Verstappen shuns Lewis Hamilton suggestion on influence of title

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Max Verstappen insists that he didn’t need Lewis Hamilton to push him to another level following their historic title battle last year. Verstappen ended up pipping Hamilton for his first world title in controversial fashion at the end of the 2021 season.

The pair were embroiled in a tense fight throughout the year with several collisions on the track. Verstappen had shown in his earlier years in F1 that he was more than capable of winning an F1 title when given the right car.

Mercedes had been the dominant team up until the 2021 season when Red Bull finally began to challenge Hamilton on a regular basis. It was the first time Verstappen was in a position to show what he’s capable of and passed with flying colours.

Both drivers appeared to bring the best out of each other, but Verstappen has rejected the notion that Hamilton helped him. Verstappen was asked in the video on Time+Tide Watches YouTube channel whether he felt Hamilton ultimately pushed him to the next level.

While accepting last year’s close battle with the Briton certainly saw him step things up, he refused to credit Hamilton as the reason for his performance levels rising. “For sure you know there’s a bit of this competitiveness where you push yourself, maybe even more, to the edge,” he said.

“But I think it was always important, that’s what my dad also told me, ‘you don’t need anyone else to push yourself to the limit. you should always push yourself’. That’s how I grew up. So I don’t think anyone has pushed me to another level,” he said.

Verstappen was talking during this year’s Monaco Grand Prix, where he was also reflecting on his first world title. And the 25-year-old admitted there was a bit of “relief” from his side that he finally managed to achieve his biggest life goal.

“It’s difficult to put a feeling to it before you’ve even won it,” Verstappen added. “I never really thought about it too much, how it would be or how I would feel.

“But of course it was a very long and intense season so once everything was done and the championship was decided, it was a bit of a relief because I was like ‘finally I can rest a bit and have a bit of time off’.

“Of course at the time I was also like, ‘okay, I’ve achieved my life goal in racing’. That was also a really nice feeling.”

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