3 times bitter F1 rivals ended up becoming friends by the end of their careers (ft. Lewis Hamilton)

Lewis Hamilton's rivalry with Max Verstappen in 2021 could at times be termed bitter. The British driver and the Dutch driver were both responsible for one race-ending crash each during a race weekend. The tensions between the two have been simmering right now, but there's no denying that given the opportunity, the two would be more than willing to dish it out against each other.

This is one example of rivalries in which the participants have not moved on from the hustle of their title battles. Not all rivalries are like that, as there are some in which the two drivers resolve their differences and move on to become friends.

F1 has seen a few instances where two bitter rivals at one stage of their careers were able to resolve their issues and become friends. Who are those drivers? Let's take a look.

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#1 Alain Prost—Ayrton Senna

Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna are the first names that come up when we talk about bitter rivals in F1 history. Senna was one of the inspirations for Lewis Hamilton when he was growing up. He was also someone who had this undeniable belief and drive where he wanted to prove to everyone that he was the best driver in F1.

This saw the two drivers clash when they became teammates in 1988 in a car that was the class of the field. The title battles saw the championship being decided by crashes in 1989 and 1990.

By the time Alain Prost retired, however, Senna had mellowed his approach to his former rival. As the on-track battles had ended, a driver who was Lewis Hamilton's idol while growing up became friendlier with his former archrival until his untimely death in 1994.

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#2 Lewis Hamilton-Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel was always the outsider raining on the parade of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso when he started dominating the sport in the early 2010s. The German had the Red Bull under him, a car that could sometimes be tough to master, but the driver who was able to accomplish it ended up having a different level of performance.

It was during this time that Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel first locked horns. While the battle was more or less cordial between the two during the Red Bull stint, Hamilton had notoriously made comments alluding to Vettel's dominance making F1 boring (something he clarified later).

During Vettel's title run in Red Bull, the German had limited battles with Lewis Hamilton, as the title battle mostly featured Fernando Alonso. With Vettel's move to Ferrari, things changed.

Tensions rose during the 2017 F1 season, and it came to a hilt in the race in Baku, where Vettel intentionally banged wheels with Lewis Hamilton during the safety car period. During the 2017 and 2018 seasons, while the respect was there, the tensions remained high, and it was only after the German driver's career regressed that we ended up with a scenario where the two mended fences.

At the end of Vettel's career, Lewis Hamilton was one of his closest friends and someone who he does stay in touch with even today.

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#3 Nelson Piquet-Nigel Mansell

Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell were probably one of the first teammate pairs to fall out as badly as they did in a title battle. At the time the two got together in 1986, Piquet was already a 2-time world champion while Mansell was still young and had not achieved a similar kind of success.

While the Brazilian joined the team with an expectation to be the team leader, those hopes went as soon as it became clear that Williams was looking to give both drivers the same tools. As the team surged with their brilliant Honda engines, the two drivers battled for the title in both 1986 and 1987, ending up becoming bitter rivals on track and off it as well, with Piquet having a habit of making some distasteful comments in the media.

The partnership ended after 1987, and it was only by the time their respective careers ended that the two drivers got back to talking terms.