Max Verstappen names one race where he nearly ‘stopped the car’ amid vision problems

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Max Verstappen has revealed that he had to deal with eyesight issues after his crash at the 2021 British Grand Prix. The problems arose in the midst of a title battle with Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton and Verstappen made contact at Copse on the first lap of the race as the Mercedes driver tried to execute a bold overtake. The Red Bull star slid into the barriers at high speed.

The stewards handed Hamilton a 10-second penalty for the incident, but he was still able to win the race. Verstappen, meanwhile, had to go to hospital for checks.

He was fit to race in the Hungarian GP a couple of weeks later, but suffered lasting complications from the impact. Verstappen still went on to win the first of his three titles to date.

It was a truly classic campaign that saw the two drivers enter the final race in Abu Dhabi level on points. After a last-lap overtake on his rival following a safety car period, Verstappen snatched the championship.

The FIA later admitted that Michael Masi hadn’t carried out the correct restart procedure, which made the race bitterly controversial. That, in a sense, was befitting of a season that saw the title rivals come together on track three times.

Max Verstappen nearly had to retire from 2021 US Grand Prix

Speaking to the German print edition of the Red Bulletin magazine, Verstappen recalled his struggles during the United States Grand Prix at Austin. He admits he couldn’t see the track clearly and felt as if he was ‘riding a wave’.

It became so difficult that he considered stopping the car and retiring from the race. Red Bull were unaware of the issue, which occurred at multiple circuits.

Verstappen, however, sees the win in Texas as even more ‘special’ in this context. He came under pressure from a charging Hamilton in the closing stages of the race as Mercedes pitted later to generate a tyre offset.

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

He said: “So the track sometimes started to go really wavy for me, and during that race I was battling, of course, Lewis catching me but at the same time battling myself because I was struggling with my vision.

“It was like riding a wave on a boat while going at 300 kilometres an hour. So l had to try to control my breathing in a different way to try to get rid of the problem – nothing else was working.

“For quite a number of laps, I was almost about to stop the car because I couldn’t see properly. It happened at tracks that were very bumpy or had loads of advertising boards.

“I never told anyone at that point as I had a Championship battle. That’s why for me it’s a really special win.”

Alain Prost pinpoints where Verstappen is the same as Ayrton Senna

Verstappen has been ruthlessly dominant ever since clinching that first title in 2021. He won 15 races the following season, and a record-breaking 19 in 2023.

With seven victories under his belt from the first 12 races this year, he’s firmly on course to make it four titles in a row. Lando Norris has provided close competition recently but remains 84 points behind in the championship.

A fourth crown would see Verstappen overtake the iconic Ayrton Senna, as well as Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda and Nelson Piquet. Former teammate Alain Prost believes Senna had the same reputation as Verstappen as a brutally tough wheel-to-wheel racer.

The 26-year-old seemingly has the capacity to intimidate his rivals too. McLaren bosses felt Norris looked ‘weak’ after he backtracked on his apology demand following the Austrian GP collision with Verstappen.