Daniel Ricciardo was not surprised by Max Verstappen winning the 2021 championship title in the controversial Abu Dhabi GP.
Max Verstappen won the 2021 championship in a controversial race in Abu Dhabi GP. Since then, many believe that the title should be overturned as Verstappen does not deserve it. Daniel Ricciardo does not agree with this idea.
Ricciardo and Verstappen have raced together in Red Bull as teammates between 2016 and 2018. The Australian had defeated Verstappen in the drivers’ standings in the first two seasons. However, the Dutchman came out on top in the 2018 season.
Here’s a flashback to Azerbaijan 2018 when Carlos Sainz and Nico Hülkenberg made easy work of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, driving much inferior cars. pic.twitter.com/U9sPHFGMuV
— House 🇺🇸 (@LasagnaRic3) February 20, 2022
Asked whether the fact that he raced a future champion so closely means that he views his own abilities more highly, Ricciardo joked, “Yes, I’m pretty much the world champion too! I don’t have the bonus, or the big trophy but I can tell you…”
Also Read: Lewis Hamilton said that he has no grudges against Max Verstappen; he did what any driver would do
Daniel Ricciardo thinks both Hamilton and Verstappen deserved a title
However, on a serious note, Ricciardo was not surprised to see Verstappen win the championship. He said that both of them were pushing each other to pretty high levels during their stint together.
The McLaren driver said, “Being teammates with Max, I knew that we were pushing each other to a pretty high level.”
“I knew that, whilst we were teammates, [even though] we weren’t World Champion[s], I felt like, [with] the way we were driving, [it] could have given us the world title, in some of those years. At least one.”
“So to see him do it after, for me, it’s not a surprise. For sure, it’s nice for me to know that we had a pretty close battle for those years [that] we were teammates.
“But I didn’t really need to see him win the title to show that to myself. I feel like I really [have] felt that or known that for a while. It was kind of a matter of time for him to get a title, for sure.”
Furthermore, the Australian driver feels like it was a shame what happened in the Abu Dhabi GP and both Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen truly deserved a title.
“There was always going to be a winner and a loser last year, no matter how the last race ended, even if it was a boring last lap finish.
“But they both truly deserved a title. They’ve both done phenomenal races, they both come back, and so someone was always going to lose out, I guess,” he added.
“Obviously there’s the Lewis side, but there shouldn’t be a ‘Max doesn’t deserve it’ side. Because he absolutely also deserved it.”
