Quote:
Originally Posted by lens
If people want to blame who made Max how he is now, it's Mercedes and Hamilton.
2021 was one of the most difficult and hardcore championship battle ever, where one mistake could cost you the championship, it made Max come under pressure ever single race where he had to give 110% to beat Hamilton.
After that season, Max evolved into someone who had gone through most likely the absolute worst stress and walked away with a win and championship.
Which is why if anyone were to challenge him in 2024 and beyond, he would be stress free, pressure free as all he wanted was a championship, and he got it. Now he just drives for fun, and as you can see with the rest of the field, not many drivers can drive with that much pressure. RUS flew into a wall in Singapore, Charles in 2022 crashed in some races on his own, Perez falling apart after Miami, binning his car at Monaco.
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I agree with you. We should add Ham to the list at the end of your post. It wasn't until 2021 when there was actual competition (driving at the front for years with a 2 second gap per lap never saw any pressure there) that we saw how he truly is under pressure. He makes mistakes and he is very much NOT a good wheel to wheel racer. We have seen this countless times and even most recently with Pia at Monza - totally a rookie move.
Max has no pressure since winning that tight battle in 2021 which MB were willing to crash out opponent to try to win. On top of that, his level of ability and race craft is only getting better. We saw a new high with how patient he was at Monza and forced Sai to break later and later causing him to eventually lock up and then seized the moment and never relinquieshed.