“He left Red Bull, he went to Renault, he’s gone to McLaren. He’s going to get the victory now. It’s McLaren and Ricciardo that win the Italian Grand Prix!” As Daniel Ricciardo crossed the line to take his 8th career win at the 2021 Italian GP, it gave the Formula 1 world one of those classic, soulful, Crofty commentaries that’s sure to give McLaren and Ricciardo fans goosebumps. But if you think about it, had it not been for Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, the Honey Badger would’ve never gotten his best moment at McLaren.

The tension between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton throughout the 2021 Formula 1 season was palpable. They pushed themselves and each other to the limit every chance they got. While the Abu Dhabi season finale was where it all went down and tensions boiled over, some races led up to it. The Italian GP was one of them, and now, Verstappen’s actions in 2023 are being compared to what went down in 2021.

Does Max Verstappen have a different approach to racing Lewis Hamilton?

Max Verstappen may have broken a decade-long record at the Italian GP, but his battle with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz has broken the internet as well. As the reigning champion crossed the line in Monza to secure his 47th career win, he won his 10th consecutive race, breaking Sebastian Vettel’s 2013 record of 9 back-to-back victories. To get the win, though, he had to get past Sainz, who was putting up a valiant fight.

In theory, the RB19 should’ve had almost no problem overtaking the SF-23, especially considering Red Bull’s DRS advantage. But Ferrari turned up with a car with good top speed, and Verstappen was finding it difficult to get past the Spaniard on the straights. Although he finally got past on Lap 15, a prior attempt going into Turn 1 was compared to the Lap 23 collision with Hamilton in 2021 that ended with both of them in the gravel—the Red Bull on top of the Mercedes.

Comparing Verstappen’s onboards from both seasons, a Twitterati posted a video of the same, captioning it, “I never noticed at first, but Max comes from 2 car lengths behind to try and get past Lewis. He was never making it…He races Lewis differently that’s a fact. And gets away with it…” Like any other incident dealing with the 2021 rivals, the video caused a debate between Twitteratis—did Verstappen know what he was doing in 2021 to cause the incident, or was he just doing what he had to?

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Was Verstappen “not left enough room,” or did he pull a “Kamikaze” on Hamilton?

Going into the 2023 Italian GP, Verstappen had a commanding lead in the championship, knowing that his third title was just a matter of races away. Considering he also has a car faster than any other on the grid, overtaking Sainz was inevitable, even if he’d had to wait more than he would’ve wanted. In 2021, though, his and Hamilton’s cars were almost on par with each other, and both had a championship on the line. So the situations were quite different. Even so, some users picked Hamilton’s side, and others chose Verstappen’s.

Some users wrote how they had a championship on the line, which warranted a different racing approach.

A few users pointed out how it isn’t just Verstappen who races differently against Hamilton. The seven-time champion does it, too.

Users pointed out that in 2021, Hamilton had just gotten out of the pits, was on colder tires, and wasn’t at top speed. On the other hand, Verstappen was. So, he had all the right to make the move.

Another Twitterati pointed out how Verstappen has grown over the two years and that the two incidents can’t be compared.

While a lot of users were on Verstappen’s side, many of them made their case about how Verstappen knew exactly what he was doing in 2021, what it would result in, and did it anyway.

Can Verstappen’s attempted move on Sainz this season be compared to the 2021 incident with Hamilton?

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