Max Verstappen says he will switch to number 1 for the 2022 season as reigning Formula 1 World Champion.
Verstappen clinched the 2021 title during a dramatic denouement to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in which he passed championship rival Lewis Hamilton on the final lap.
Verstappen has run 33 throughout his Formula 1 career, having selected it as his personal number ahead of his debut in 2015, a year after the new system came into place.
During that period the number 1 was used only in 2014, when Sebastian Vettel was the reigning champion, before he relinquished his crown at the end of the year.
As World Champion Hamilton opted to retain 44 on each occasion.
Nico Rosberg, who won the 2016 title, did not defend his crown after retiring in the wake of his success.
“I will run it,” said Verstappen on number 1. “How many times can you do that? I don’t know, maybe it’s the only time I can in my life, it’s the best number out there. So yeah I will definitely put it on the car.”
Verstappen also expressed sympathy for Hamilton’s plight following the outcome of the title showdown.
“On one side it was incredibly happy, and on one side it was disappointed,” said Verstappen on the emotions.
“Of course I felt for Lewis, he did everything right throughout the whole race. But F1 can be very unpredictable and of course it can go either way.
“It could have been the other way around where I was controlling the race and then I would lose it in the last lap. That’s unfortunately all part of racing.”
It will be great to see that number one adorn his car next season. Verstappen showed class too in his acknowledgement of the disappointment Hamilton would be feeling. Christian Horner was also magnanimous in victory, going to the Mercedes pitwall to shake hands at the end of the race.
To be fair to Hamilton, who I do not like but to whom I will give credit due, he was more graceful in interviews, and to Verstappen and his Red Bull team, as indeed was his father, than the lanky Austrian robot Wolff, who threw his toys out of the pram and skulked off to his office with his lawyer, saying not a word to anyone before he left the circuit. Neither his opponents nor the media. Typical of the kind of leaders produced by Austria.
“Typical of the kind of leaders produced by Austria.”
Ouch 🙂