Juan Pablo Montoya tells Lando Norris he was lucky not to face the ‘Max Verstappen of 2021’

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Max Verstappen ultimately lost out to Lando Norris by just two points in the F1 title battle. It’s the smallest margin the sport has seen under the current points system.

Verstappen won the season-ending Abu Dhabi GP but Norris held onto the third place he needed to clinch the championship. After Charles Leclerc briefly put the McLaren driver under pressure in the opening laps, the immediate threat subsided.

Heading into the race, Verstappen said he wouldn’t back up the pack as Lewis Hamilton had done in 2016 when he trailed Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg by the same margin. He suspected that this wouldn’t work on the updated circuit layout.

Red Bull told Yuki Tsunoda to defend hard against Norris as the British driver navigated traffic after his early pit stop, and Tsunoda picked up a five-second penalty for weaving on the straight. But this had little effect, and it was the only card Laurent Mekies played.

Lando Norris told the 2021 version of Max Verstappen would have been more ruthless

Verstappen repeatedly said in the run-up to Abu Dhabi that he would consider the title a bonus. He has already won four championships and had ruled himself out of contention for the 2025 crown during the summer.

The Dutchman simply felt pride at clawing his way back into the race from 104 points behind. He says he would have been champion much earlier if he were driving the McLaren.

Speaking on the AS Colombia YouTube channel, Juan Pablo Montoya said Verstappen would have fought Norris ‘harder’ in 2021, when he was still chasing his first championship.

Is the greatest season EVER from a runner-up?

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But having defeated Hamilton that day and won three more titles since, Verstappen reined in the aggression.

“I was surprised that Red Bull weren’t more aggressive,” Montoya said. “Someone made a comment that is very true – the Max of 2021 would have fought harder than the Max of today.

“Today’s Max thought, ‘Let’s win the race and whatever happens, happens.’ The 2021 Max would have taken advantage of Lando having problems at the beginning of the race, lacking speed, to make things more difficult.”

Laurent Mekies didn’t want to use the Christian Horner playbook in Abu Dhabi

Mekies said Red Bull would race cleanly when he was sitting alongside Zak Brown in the Friday press conference. On Verstappen’s side of the garage, they did so.

But McLaren were furious with Tsunoda’s driving, even if the incident will ultimately be forgotten due to the outcome of the title race.

Jolyon Palmer says Christian Horner would have gone to the ‘absolute limit’ of the rules to try and snatch the title. Perhaps Laurent Mekies didn’t want to win the title under a cloud.