Max Verstappen’s mom Sophie Kumpen reveals how competition with Lewis Hamilton in 2021 affected her son’s mental health.
The 2021 season gave a historic competition between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton for the championship. The battle between the two drivers went on till the end of the wire and brought both the drivers to the edge.
Former teammates and rivals of Hamilton have confessed it’s mentally draining to compete with Hamilton when he’s at his peak. It has also propelled former Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg right after he won his maiden championship in 2016.
Thus, it was obvious that with W12, Hamilton wouldn’t go down easily no matter how good Verstappen performs. Nevertheless, the Dutchman won his first championship in 2021, despite all the controversy around the last year’s Abu Dhabi GP.
Karun Chandhok takes a look back at the opening lap of the 2021 British GP, where Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton touched and sent the Dutchman heavily into the barriers. pic.twitter.com/91S6r7sBmg
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) July 1, 2022
However, the aftermath of it wasn’t easy for him. Verstappen’s mother Sophie Kumpen reveals how drained the Red Bull star was when he reached her home after the season end.
“He came to my place a few days after he won,” said Kumpen. “And he was absolutely finished. He was exhausted mentally and he just wanted to be at home.”
“I made his comfort food and we had a nice few quite days together,” she added. Verstappen even confessed that if he has to compete like this for long in F1, he might not be able to continue for long.
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The 2022 season is so far going easy for Max Verstappen
The 2022 season has been quite pleasant for Verstappen except for the initial few races. He is leading the standings with a considerable lead of 34 points against his teammate, Sergio Perez, who is right behind him in the order.
On the other hand, Hamilton this year struggled quite a bit with W13, and couldn’t make himself a contender in the title race so far. At the beginning of the season, he also confessed that he counts himself out of the title race.
But with recent improvements in Mercedes’ floor, he is back at the podiums. Thus, in the next few races, he could possibly be back at competing against Verstappen.
Meanwhile, Ferrari also has a brilliant car this year, with Charles Leclerc looking promising when he won two races out of the first three races this year.
But since then, the Maranello-based team has been disastrous with its strategies. That allowed Red Bull to capitalize on their chances and take away as many points and have a commanding grip on the title fight.
