© Wolfgang Wilhelm for Daimler AG
Former Red Bull Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey reveals how Max Verstappen dealt with the backlash surrounding his controversial 2021 F1 title win.
Back in 2021, at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton lost the F1 world title fight to Max Verstappen under controversial circumstances.
More specifically, race director (at the time) Michael Masi made a series of decisions in the final laps of the race, which went against the rules and practices of Safety Car deployment, and which directly influenced the outcome of the race, allowing Max Verstappen to win.
This caused a lot of backlash on social media and Verstappen’s legitimacy as the world champion was often questioned.
During his appearance on the High Performance Podcast, Red Bull’s Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey was asked about how Verstappen dealt with the backlash surrounding that incident.
If you like SilverArrows.Net, consider supporting us by buying us a coffee!
“I don’t… I think honestly Max is so self-assured, and this is in a positive way, it’s not in a negative way,” Newey said.
“Tthere’s a fine line between arrogance and self-assured. He’s not arrogant, but he is very self-assured and self-confident.
“He’s a deep thinker but he doesn’t let things like that – they don’t really get to him.
“He’s able to shut that off and just get on with his job and on with his task and do what he loves doing which is driving racing cars,” the Briton concluded.
