Max Verstappen lost the championship to Lando Norris on Sunday. The Dutchman won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in a dominant fashion, but because the British McLaren driver managed to defend his podium position, he ultimately emerged as the overall winner. After the race, Verstappen was asked about a costly mistake earlier in the season: the infamous collision with George Russell in Barcelona. However, he was far from pleased with this line of questioning.
Lando Norris was crowned world champion by a slim margin of just two points. Critics of Max Verstappen are therefore eagerly pointing to the Dutchman’s previous missteps. For instance, several cynics pointed to the Barcelona Grand Prix, where Verstappen, in a moment of pure frustration, deliberately collided with George Russell’s Mercedes. He received a time penalty and ultimately did not finish higher than P10. “All signals turned red,” he explained later.
During the official FIA press conference in Abu Dhabi, Verstappen was once again confronted with the incident in Barcelona. “Did he now regret it more?”, was the question. “You forget everything else that happened this season,” he snapped at the journalist in question. “You’re only talking about Barcelona.” The Dutchman let an uncomfortable silence fall. “You’re sitting there now with such a stupid grin on your face,” he continued, slightly irritated. “But that’s part of racing too. You learn from it. In the second half of the season, I also received plenty of early Christmas presents (from McLaren, ed.). A championship is decided over 24 races.”
