Max Verstappen impressed everyone with his tenacious driving to win his first world championship in the 2021 season. He went wheel-to-wheel against Lewis Hamilton on several occasions in 2021 and came out on top on most of them. The Red Bull driver had an orange army behind him throughout the season, and now he may have included another F1 driver in his fan club.

Former F1 driver Gerhard Berger mentioned that Max’s aggressive style impressed him in 2021. He also revealed that the Dutch driver had to be aggressive to beat the 7-time world champion to compete in the championship. Furthermore, he even pointed out another reason he believes the Dutch driver was so aggressive in 2021 against Hamilton.

Berger praises Max Verstappen for his driving style against Lewis Hamilton

As reported by Motorsport-Turkey, the Austrian mentioned that if Verstappen hadn’t driven so aggressively last season, he would not have won the world championship.

“Last year he had to be aggressive because Lewis’s car was better. If he hadn’t been so aggressive, he wouldn’t have had a chance to win the championship in the end. So he did what he had to do,” said Berger. (quotes translated using Google Translate)

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“If the car is the best this year, maybe it will adapt and do it in a different way because that aggressiveness is no longer necessary. Because when you drive so aggressively and it doesn’t work, you hit each other or you fall out, it hurts,” added Gerhard.

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It is an important point mentioned by the former Ferrari driver. On most occasions, last season, Max’s Red Bull was on par with Lewis’s Mercedes, but they did drop back at end of 2021.

But it would be interesting to see if the Dutch driver would continue his driving style in the 2022 season. Now that he’s a world champion and looks to have a faster car than Mercedes, would he need to be that aggressive? He might be, to fight the current front runners, Ferrari.

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It looks highly unlikely that we will see Part 2 of Hamilton and Verstappen’s rivalry, at least in the first half of 2022. But it would be great for the sport if Mercedes can join Red Bull and Ferrari for the fight at the front.