Furthermore, Christian Horner also mentioned that Verstappen had a cramp during the last lap of the race but still managed to overtake Hamilton on the hairpin corner, something Red Bull was not expecting. After the hairpin, the Dutchman was tried to wake his left foot up in time to hit the brakes for the next chicane as well. Horner shared:

“The interesting thing is where Max passed him – it caught Lewis completely by surprise. After the race, Max told us he didn’t intend to overtake him there but he got cramp behind the Safety Car and he couldn’t feel his left foot properly, so he thought: ‘Oh, f*ck it, I’m going [for it] anyway.’ And then, when they were going down the straight, he was trying to wake his left foot up to hit the brakes for the next chicane.”

Max Verstappen won his first world championship in 2021. To this day, there are massive debates amongst F1 fans about whether Verstappen deserved the title or not, mainly because former FIA race director Michael Masi took some controversial decisions during the safety car period.

Lewis Hamilton on how Max Verstappen was cruising at the front of the grid in 2023

Lewis Hamilton is no stranger to dominance in Formula 1. The Brit has won seven world championships in his career and has dominated with Mercedes in the turbo hybrid era.

When it comes to Max Verstappen’s recent success, Hamilton stated that the Red Bull driver has not yet been challenged properly by anyone in the past couple of years.

In a conversation with The Race talking about the Red, Lewis Hamilton said:

“I don’t think we have ever really truly pushed them … maybe Austin we were the closest, but even then I think they still always had a tenth or two on us at the bare minimum. You go through lap times and some of the data from Max, and you can see he is chilling at the front more often than not. I don’t think he has broken a sweat during the year.”