niky44

[niky44]

Abu Dhabi 2021

"For some the worst, for some the best day of their lives"

The 2021 season during which the uprising star of Red Bull and the reigning world champion going for his record breaking 8th world title fought head to head.

Or a season during which has Lewis Hamilton, after long four years, finally found someone who's able to keep up with him, not only keep up, who's able to beat him even.

That being the only Dutch winner in Formula One's history, Max Verstappen, who was determined to end Lewis's winning streak for once and for good.

Although his entry into Formula 1 at the age of seventeen - becoming the youngest driver and soon enough even youngest race winner - was not without security, that was far from the most talked-about aspect of Max.

He was never afraid to speak his mind, his honesty has never backed down in front of anyone or anything.

As some might say, he had the complete 'fuck you' mentality.

His on track behaviour wasn't any different whatsoever, many people were calling his driving style reckless or even dangerous, but as long as it was working Red Bull didn't have any complaints.

Max's first win was back in Barcelona 2016, but is that really important for the story of Abu Dhabi '21?

In Barcelona '16 Lewis and his teammate back then, Nico Rosberg, took each other out during their heated rivalry.

But 2016 was also the only year since Lewis's first championship with Mercedes in 2014 that he's been beaten in championship fight by someone, as Nico took the title that year.

And now, five years later, there was Max, who's quite literally risen from their rivalry. And who was meant to beat Lewis as much as Nico was in 2016.

They were fighting each other like there was no tomorrow, having lunch with death here and there. The season itself was already controversial enough, with all their dirty manoeuvres. However no one was ready for what was about to happen during it's finale.

A thing of such a measure that even years later fans are still fighting over if it was right or wrong,forever separating the fan base into two camps.

*

12/12/2021

*

Max was starting from pole, Lewis from P2.

In that stage of season Mercedes had the fastest car on the grid, but still the difference to Red Bull wasn't as significant.

They were tied on points and tied on talent.

Lights went out.

They were fighting wheel to wheel since the very beginning, but it came out in Lewis taking the lead.

The gap between him and Max was getting bigger and bigger.

After Max went to the pits, his teammate, Checo tried to hold Lewis behind for as long as he could, so he would buy Max some time to shrink the gap.

However Checo had to pit at some point and when he did so Max was still far behind.

Only miracle could save him now.

Fifty eight laps and Lewis led fifty one of them, except for the laps fifteen to twenty and...fifty eight.

Nicholas Latifi hit the wall in turn 14 on lap fifty three.

Safety car was immediately deployed, there was an option of a free pit stop and Red Bull went it, there was nothing they could lose.

On the other hand Mercedes didn't go, because they had everything to lose and going for a pit stop now would mean losing track positions that they can't make up under the safety car.

According to the rules Max was without a chance to win at this point, as the race would either end under the safety car or there would be one lap of racing, but because of the traffic, containing the lapped cars, there would be no chance for him nonetheless.

Lewis was an eight time world champion.

...or was he?

*

"We've got a lap of racing here in Abu Dhabi to decide the champion of the world in 2021"

*

Rules changed.

Lapped cars were able to overtake the safety car. And rumour has it that the rules were changed right on the spot, although it might not be just a rumour.

The eleven seconds gap between Lewis and Max was suddenly nowhere to be found. They were side by side with one lap of racing. Max was on newer, faster tires, while Lewis on the older, slower ones.

*

Lap 58

*

"The first overtaking zone is normally down to turn five"

There was no way for Lewis to retake the lead and win in that moment, he couldn't do anything, he was just spectator in his own battle. And as much as he tried to come back on Max, after he overtook him in the, now so infamous, turn five, there was really not a single thing he could do.

"Mercedes, not happy. Red Bull will be delighted. They've shared a brilliant championship battle, but the championship can only be won by one! And it's going Dutch! In 2021 Max Verstappen, for the first time ever, is the Champion of the World!"

And just like that Max became Red Bull's new Sebastian, while the number 8 became Lewis's curse till this day.

It was time for a new era, era of Max's and Red Bull's domination.

Era of Mercedes' downfall which ended up in them losing their biggest gem - Lewis.

[niky44]

He's tryna get them back together 😔🙏🏻

I just realized, Isack used to be (and probably still is) a Lewis fan.

Someone tell me why the hell he has Nico's number then. Please.

[niky44]

Ferrari's problem called: Ferrari

History. Passion. Success. Prestige. Mystery.

All of these words above have one synonym -

"The prancing horse"

Since 1950 no Formula 1 team has participated in more Grand Prix nor has won more championships than the red cars of Scuderia Ferrari. And If you ask a person a person who knows nothing about Formula 1 to name a single team, they'll say Ferrari.

~ said Sebastian Vettel and he couldn't be more right. 76.5% of the entire Formula 1 fan base really are Tifosi.

With 16 constructors and 15 drivers championships one would expect Ferrari to dominate the sport for decades, yet their latest constructors win goes all the way back to 2008 and drivers even to 2007.

The truth is it was always like this in the Maranello based team, because before Michael Schumacher dominated the early 2000s, they were struggling for years...and they're struggling now.

But why? Sure there must be some good explanation for such an iconic's team fall offs every other decade.

The biggest opponent of Ferrari is Ferrari itself and it's pride.

The team is too caught up in it's successful past that it rejects any kind of evolution. Whether it is mindset or approach.

Great start would probably be to adress the issue, if only Ferrari wouldn't be too proud for that. Therefore they blame it on the drivers, find new ones and shrug it off.

Now the red team is stuck with the most successful driver that has ever sat behind the wheel of Formula 1 car and a driver who has dedicated racing for Scuderia Ferrari his entire life and also who happens to be one of the most talented drivers on the entire grid.

Yet it is still them who's called the problem by Ferrari.

Because the iconic red car having technical issues is a pill too hard to swallow for the Italians.

Ferrari is where champions retire.

And to change that it is time to open the gates of Maranello and let in people who understand nowadays Formula 1, even though they might not have an Italian passport - which Ferrari probably refuses to believe is possible.

[niky44]

The story of: Brocedes

But what it was to really be someone's "everything but a lover?"

The two of them met in 1998 during a karting race in Italy. Nico Rosberg, the son of former F1 world champion Keke Rosberg, the nepo baby and the star of Italian karting. On the other hand there was Lewis Hamilton, coming from a poor English family who was often bullied for his skin colour.

On the last lap of the race Lewis has passed Nico and claimed the victory, but also impressed Keke, who later on came up to him with an idea of creating team just for him and Nico.

He accepted.

They became friends immediately. Travelling and destroying hotel rooms together during their 'wrestling' fights, competing with one another for pizza, eating frosties together or convincing their team manager to buy them ice cream in the middle of the night.

Once Nico's family even took Lewis with them on a vacation to Greece. The other night then they were laying on a yacht under the stars, dreaming of making it to Formula 1 together, of racing along side each other in one of the top teams and fighting for wins.

The very much thing that destroyed them.

In 2007 they both made it to F1 and in 2008 they celebrate Nico's first podium together on the top steps. Then in 2013 Lewis joins Mercedes and they're dream of becoming teammates comes true.

They promise each other that whatever will happen on the race track won't transfer into real life.

In 2014 goes on and wins the championship, while Nico has to watch him lift the P1 trophy like he had to for the past eighteen years.

Although he's tried so many different ways to beat him that season, like when he switched to banned - more aggressive - engine mode during the Bahrain Grand Prix to overtake Lewis. Which worked, until it didn't when Lewis pulled the same move on him couple of races later.

Mercedes then has completely forbidden them from switching the modes at all.

Still Nico has lost and he was getting more and more frustrated, determined not to come second to Lewis the following season.

At the beginning of the 2015 season the lines between friendship and rivalry started getting more and more blury.

The 2015 season turned out to be another failed attempt for Nico and another successfully landed championship for Lewis. The only thing that has really progressed that season was their rivalry, which was growing far behind healthy.

"The silver war"

2016 was now or never for Nico Rosberg.

He was willing to do whatever it takes to beat his best friend for once and for good. But could they really be referred as best friends anymore or were they just rivals?

They were after each other's throats like never before the entire season. Backing one another into traffic to ruin their flying lap, intense wheel wheel fights in which they've been escaping collisions only by couple of inches, keeping the entire Mercedes garage on their toes.

However most importantly there were mind games...lots of mind games indeed.

When talking to the media Nico often said that Lewis sometimes has these moments when he loses motivation and his performance slips up and because he knows him for such a long time he also knows where to pull strings to maximise them.

Lewis fired back with mentioning that Nico, in fact, doesn't have enough talent and so must rely on good strategy from the team, which makes him easy to beat.

They simply were using all those years of friendship against each other for a name in the history books Formula 1.

The hatered and rivalry got so intense that they've started accusing each other's mechanics of snitching, therefore the team had to build a wall between their garages to make them stop.

Or in cool down rooms after each race, Nico often tried to avoid any interactions with Lewis, so he'd always spoke to other drivers in different languages. Once he even started speaking Italian to Daniel Riccardo (he doesn't speak Italian).

Even the legend of F1, Niki Lauda himself, tried to parent trap them in his house, but as soon as they saw each other they turned on their heels and left.

...yet the two Mercedes drivers could barely bring themselves to look at each other, let alone shake each other's hands

It all peaked in Barcelona 2016. When on the first lap of the race Toto Wolf's biggest nightmare happened - they collided with each other, taking one another out of the race.

The race was over for them as much as their friendship was.

"Well we're not friends" ~ Lewis, post race interview

"We're friends, we've always been friends, but you know, friends is a big word" ~ Nico Rosberg

After that the rivalry everyone thought couldn't get worse got worse.

Nico once mentioned that 2016 championship fight has almost literally killed him.

Fortunately the long awaited season's finale in Abu Dhabi was here. Nico and Lewis were sitting at the pre-race press conference, the journalists asking them tons and tons of questions, except that this time they were mostly about one specific thing - their childhood together.

While Lewis was reminiscing about those days of their silly competition and laughs, he even said that the karting days were one of the best days of his career. He finished with words how he's excited to race against Nico in the upcoming season.

Nico next to him, on the other hand, was holding back tears. Not only that the only food he was able to eat for the entire week were frosties...the same food they used to obsess over together when they were kids. But also this was his last ever Formula 1 race, however he didn't tell anyone yet.

And so after eighteen years of always coming second...Nico Rosberg has won the 2016 Formula 1 World Championship.

~

Years and years after 2016 they still weren't able to even say each other's name, often refering to each other as "the other guy" or "my former teammate".

Although nowadays Nico praises Lewis on Sky sports at any given chance, Lewis barely ever mentions him.

Except for the infamous interview when he was asked "Are you a better driver now than your were in 2016?"

"Yes and teammate"