"I’ve never once ever heard Lewis recognize Max’s ability"- Red Bull boss on intense rivalry between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton

Red Bull boss Christian Horner feels there was a different intensity in the battle between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. On the Beyond the Grid podcast, Horner was asked why the rivalry between Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen differs from what he had last season.

The Red Bull boss speculated that it had a lot to do with the mutual respect between Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen. He believes it was something that was lacking from Lewis Hamilton last season. Horner said,

“You know, there’s a difference, there’s perhaps a different respect with Charles. They raced each other since [being] kids, and there was a mutual respect. I’ve never once ever heard Lewis recognize Max’s ability. And so of course, there was just a bit more needle to it and you could feel that, and you could sense that between those two drivers.”

Horner speculated that there was a bit of a needle between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. According to him, it had to do with Lewis being the 7-time world champion fighting against a young talented driver who had nothing to lose. The Red Bull boss believes it did leave Lewis Hamilton a bit rattled last season. He said,

“I think arguably, maybe more so in Lewis’ head. Because he’s the seven-time World Champion that has everything to lose, Max is the young kid that’s taking the risks, that’s throwing everything at it, and got nothing to lose. Some of his overtaking last year was stunning and you felt that started to rattle Lewis, I think."

There was an air of desperation from Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone

Talking about what happened at Silverstone last season, Christian Horner felt that Lewis was desperate by that time. He had already lost to Max Verstappen on Saturday in the sprint race. If Lewis Hamilton had not gone for the lunge at Copse in that race, he would have lost to the Dutch driver. Speaking about that weekend, Horner said,

“We definitely saw after Lewis qualified on pole at Silverstone and Max won the sprint race you saw Lewis, he was a bit broken after the sprint race. Had Max made it through Copse [Corner], I don’t think they’d have seen him again that afternoon, so there was an air of desperation building in as well."

Horner summarized that it was ultimately emotions that ran high that season, and what happened was a result of that. He said,

“It was high stakes stuff and your emotions run high, but it probably affected Lewis arguably more than Max because, as I say, he’d got more to lose than Max. Max had everything to gain.”

It is interesting to see that even though we're almost at the end of the 2022 F1 season, the battle in the 2021 F1 season is still a talking point for everyone.