Max Verstappen put in a season of a lifetime to beat Lewis Hamilton in the 2021 championship. The Red Bull driver finished every race either first or second in which he did not end up with damage to his car. Admittedly, sometimes Verstappen got a bit dirty when fighting for the championship against the 7-time world champion.

Former F1 driver Stefan Johansson mentioned Max took inspiration from Michael Schumacher‘s playbook in the title fight. But he claimed the Dutch driver took it to another level.

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Former F1 driver accuses Max Verstappen of being over the line in 2021

As reported by Stefan Johansson. art, the former Ferrari and McLaren driver claimed Verstappen pushed the driving rules to another level. He also praised the current generation of drivers for being fair but hard in wheel-to-wheel racing.

“The issue we have right now on track is that Max has taken the Senna playbook and the Schumacher playbook to a whole new level. Generally, I think there’s a good code of conduct between the drivers.

Most of the current crop of the new generation of drivers are racing very clean but hard. There’s been some really great battles this year, but they’re not at the front and therefore it goes unnoticed for the most part. No one cares about the guys in fifth or sixth place.” said Stefan.

“I don’t have a lot of optimism for the changes from the officials. Every year decisions about driving standards and enforcement are getting worse, muddier with more grey areas.

If Max can get away with what he’s gotten away with in certain cases this year, then like Leclerc said, ‘Ok, fine. If that’s how we’re going to race, then that’s how we have to race.’ said Stefan.

Well, Verstappen did push the rules hard in the 2021 season to compete for the championship. But it is interesting to see how differently officials judge the battles at the front of the grid to battles in the midfield. Hopefully, there will be more consistency in the rules from the 2022 season.

What are your predictions for the 2022 season?

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