Today, December 12, 2021, is a day that will go down in history.
Today is the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, held in the UAE. Ever since the track was added to the calendar, it has been the last race of every Formula 1 season. Normally, the Driver’s and Constructor’s champions are decided by the time we get to the Yas Marina Circuit.
Not this year.
Max Verstappen: 367.5 points.
Lewis Hamilton: 367.5 points.
2021 has been a hell of a season. The lead for the driver’s title has changed 5 times, and in the last few weeks, Hamilton has made up enough ground to tie up the fight heading into the last Grand Prix.
It hasn’t been tied going into the last round since 1978.
Lewis Hamilton is the first driver to win more than 100 races, and is tied with Michael Schumacher for an astonishing 7 championship wins. If he wins, he becomes the first to win 8. The first Black driver in F1 history and, to date, the only one. Some say he is the Greatest of All Time. In a sport with an inherently unlevel playing field- since no two teams use the same car- such a title is impossible to assess. But there is no doubt that he is a living legend.
Max Verstappen was, when he first drove for Toro Rosso, the youngest driver to ever compete in an F1 event. The majority of his wins have come to him this season as Red Bull has finally caught Mercedes’ performance. If he wins, this will be his first title. He will be the first Dutch driver to win a title. He will be the first driver to win for a team other than Mercedes since 2013, when Sebastian Vettel won for Red Bull.
One race. Neither has to win. Neither even has to sit on the podium. One must simply finish ahead of the other. Verstappen sits on pole position- historically, the pole-sitter wins since it was hard to overtake on this track. But this year, they renovated the circuit- it remains to be seen if this solves the track’s overtaking problem.
The greatest season in recent memory ends today, in the UAE. If ever there was a race to watch, watch this one. It will be remembered long after the engines are stopped.