F1: The Winners, and then the Legends

In the Singapore Grand Prix, the Toro Rosso team had ordered Max Verstappen (who was running in 8) to let teammate Sainz, who was 9 pass him. Sainz, had fresher tyres, and the team hoped to catch Sergio Perez, who was 7. The 17-year-old refused which naturally had upset Carlos Sainz. But, the attitude shown by Verstappen is the same that differentiates a World Champion from a driver in F1.

This has been seen quite a few times in the 21 century (I won’t be going much further in the past when rivalries between drivers were much more intense). At the start of the century, Michael Schumacher was the main driver in Ferrari. Rubens Barrichello was a talented driver in all rights, but Ferrari seemed to support Schumacher, and on several occasions Barrichello was ordered to make way for Schumacher. While a good team player, Schumacher on the other hand made sure it was known he was the number one, which meant the Ferrari garage tended to back him up, and not much would happen if Schumacher disobeyed team orders. The biggest example of the dominance of Schumacher and the team favouring him was seen at the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix, where the team ordered Rubens to allow Schumacher to pass on the final straight for the win. Schumacher would take the 5 world championships while Rubens would end up supporting him. 9 wins against 49 and 5 championships of Schumacher.

More recently, in the infamous 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix, where Vettel overtook Mark Webber for the win, despite being ordered not to, souring their already fragile relationship. However, that aggressive winning mentality, even at the cost of personal relationships and making the garage an uneasy place for both himself and the team is the reason why he is a quadruple world champion. It is also why, he won 4 championships, especially in 2010 when it was a 4-way shoot out for the title. Webber won 9 races and Vettel won 38 in their 5 years as teammates, always finishing behind the German.

Even more recent is the rivalry between the Mercedes drivers of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Having the dominant car by far in the two years since the 1.6L V6 Turbocharged engines have existed, the championship has been fought between these two. Once good friends from their childhood, the relations soured over the time. Lewis is more than capable of beating Rosberg on their best days, which has seen Rosberg being accused of unsporting conduct especially after the 2014 Belgian Grand Prix. At the 2015 Japanese Grand Prix, Rosberg accused Hamilton of being too aggressive (who anyways made a proper racing move to take the lead at turn 2). Once again, Hamilton has shown the same mentality as he looks to outscore his team mate for the 3 consecutive year and take 2 world championships in the process. Hamilton has taken 20 races, to Rosberg’s 10.

Another example of a dominating relationship has been Double World Champion Alonso, the first driver to really break the Schumacher dominance in the 21 Century, by taking the 2005 and 2006 Championships. In 2010, he moved to Ferrari after unsuccessful stints at McLaren and a second stint at Renault. There, he partnered Felipe Massa. Massa revealed how Alonso would make it clear he was the main driver at Ferrari, which saw the Italian outfit always push Massa in a supporting role.

Also if the racing is noted, Hamilton, Vettel, Alonso and Schumacher were the drivers who were not scared to make aggressive manoeuvres. The moves were risky, sometimes they never paid off but those nerves of steel made other drivers concede position. Vettel and Alonso have been at it during the German’s reign of supremacy and even their battles in 2014 with their struggling machines.

So from the past, it’s always there is the driver that has that aggressive mentality to win. They are not scared of letting personal relationships come in the way of their pursuit of victory. While it may seem a costly price to pay, that is what separates the winners from the champions. These same drivers are also the ones with nerves of steel willing to take high risk over takes in order to move up to the front and are consistently outscoring their teammates. Max Verstappen has shown that aggressive attitude, and is also noted for his raw speed and high risk overtaking manoeuvres. If he keeps this up and hones in on his skills, we could be looking at a future world champion.