Max Verstappen deliberately fined £50k to put ‘pressure’ on Lewis Hamilton during iconic 2021 title fight

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The 2025 Formula 1 season is gearing up to have a title fight that goes right down to the wire between McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

The last time two drivers went into the final race of the season still battling for the drivers’ championship was in 2021, when Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton fought a bitter campaign.

There were plenty of controversial moments, none more so than the finale at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, when Verstappen overtook the seven-time world champion on the last lap.

Red Bull were ecstatic, while Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff delivered his iconic, ‘this is so not right’ line in the garage.

Hamilton and Verstappen’s 2021 Silverstone crash was another touchy moment, and Bradley Scanes, Verstappen’s old performance coach, talked about his intense preparations for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Verstappen created a custom simulator for the Saudi Arabian GP that was so advanced, even Red Bull didn’t have that data, but occasionally, the four-time world champion used far more simple tactics to try and get an advantage over his rival.

READ MORE: Red Bull driver Max Verstappen’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend

Max Verstappen ‘discussed’ 2021 Brazilian Grand Prix fine with Red Bull in Lewis Hamilton battle

Scanes was speaking about the battle between Verstappen and Hamilton on the High Performance Podcast.

Talking about the battle between the two teams that year, he said: “It was intense. You could cut the tension with a knife in the paddock.

“I remember Brazil, so three races from the end, we’re obviously next to each other in the garages, next to each other in the hospitality, and the way the paddock’s laid out, you’re having to like walk past each other, walk past each other’s hospitality as well.

“And nobody could even look at each other. Red Bull, Mercedes, like no one would look at each other. No one would talk to each other; you could cut the tension with a knife.

“Brazil was a good example where, I don’t know if you remember, Max went behind the Mercedes rear wing and was giving it a good feel. That was measured.

“He knew he was going to get a £50k fine and no impact on track. Within the team, it was discussed.

“Even if nothing happened, and I think there was a change. So for the last two races, they couldn’t run that particular wing.

“So, that was helpful in its own sense, because they absolutely ran away with that Brazil race! But even if nothing happened, that would have just shifted the focus, put a little bit of pressure in the media on them.”

When Verstappen was asked about the fine, via ESPN, he joked: “It’s quite a big fine, so I hope they have a nice dinner and a lot of wine — I hope good, expensive wine, that would be nice.

“They can invite me for dinner as well, I will pay for that dinner too.”

Verstappen admitted that ‘something is still backing off over there, so that’s why I went and had a look,’ and it proved to be the right decision to pick up a deliberate fine to force the FIA to investigate.

READ MORE: Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton’s life outside F1 from net worth to family

Max Verstappen nearly stopped racing after Lewis Hamilton 2021 clash

The 2021 Brazilian Grand Prix, now known as the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, was a fascinating event.

Hamilton was on pole position for the Sprint Race before Verstappen’s rear wing touch, which eventually saw him disqualified from the session and Mercedes forced to change the part for the rest of the season.

However, Hamilton came from last to P5 in the Sprint Race before dominating Sunday’s Grand Prix, finishing ahead of Verstappen in one of his best performances of the year.

The official statement from Formula 1 after the incident read: “It is clear to the stewards that it has become a habit of the drivers to touch cars after qualifying and the races.

“This was also the explanation of Verstappen, that it was simply habit to touch this area of the car which has been a point of speculation in recent races between both teams.

“This general tendency has been seen as mostly harmless and so has not been uniformly policed. Nevertheless, it is a breach of the parc fermé regulation and has significant potential to cause harm.”

The £50,000 would have been worth it in his and Red Bull’s eyes, with Hamilton disqualified and no longer allowed to use the aforementioned wing.

Verstappen nearly stopped racing in F1 after his crash with Hamilton earlier that season at Silverstone, and while Norris and Piastri’s battle is unlikely to get this intense, they’ve already made contact once and have come close on a couple of other occasions.

McLaren will hope their drivers don’t start to get the other disqualified, but Red Bull discussing Verstappen getting fined to put Hamilton on the back foot shows the extreme lengths the team was willing to go to in order to win a championship.