Do you recall this year’s Azerbaijan GP? After George Russell smashed Max Verstappen’s sidepod, the Dutchman was furious as we were reminded of the 2021 Verstappen. However, his aggression has been dubbed as mellowed under Lewis Hamilton’s influence by F1 Journalist despite the fact that he helped crush a 35-year-old record. Why was Max Verstappen dubbed as having mellowed aggression?

Max Verstappen helped Red Bull break the 35-year-old long-standing record of the most consecutive wins which was previously held by McLaren. The record was previously set by Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna driving for McLaren in 1988 when they won 11 consecutive races. With Max Verstappen’s win in Hungary, Red Bull surpassed the record with 12 consecutive wins. Many may consider that Max Verstappen’s aggression played a huge role in this, but that’s not the case. 

Max Verstappen has been the dominant force in the 2023 season. Despite being known for his aggression, which was evidently visible in the 2021 season, Peter Windsor suggests that Verstappen has mellowed down. The F1 Journalist explained how Verstappen listened to Helmut Marko and his dad, Jos Verstappen, and was super aggressive with Lewis Hamilton in 2021. However, ever since that title fight with Hamilton, the Dutchman has turned down the aggression.

According to Peter Windsor’s YouTube video, he said “I think as a driver, apart from anything else, Max [Verstappen] is a bit more, although he’s very aggressive and we saw that in 2021 when he was listening to his dad and Helmut Marko about, you know, ‘If Lewis drives into you, he’s the loser because you’re ahead on points.’ He kind of went down that path but you know since then he’s mellowed a bit in terms of his track craft.”

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However, it doesn’t really matter how Verstappen is driving. Whether it is with aggression or without it. As long as the results are coming in, the Red Bull team and Verstappen himself must be satisfied. Let’s see what the 25-year-old thought about his race this weekend.

Max Verstappen on having a great race day in Hungary

Verstappen missed out on a pole at the Hungarian GP by 0.003 seconds and Lewis Hamilton triumphed on Saturday. The Dutchman advised how he was struggling with the car balance since the practice session. However, there wasn’t any sign of complaints on Sunday as Max Verstappen had a brilliant start, controlled the race well, and won by over 30 seconds of lead.

According to FIA.com, Max Verstappen during the post-race interview said, “I think it was a pretty perfect day. It already started with the actual start, where we had a good launch, for once, and yeah, we then could look after our tires quite well, and every stint just eked out a bit more of a gap, and the car was honestly really enjoyable to drive today, so basically, with the balance I had yesterday actually worked very well for today.”

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Do you think Max Verstappen has mellowed down since the 2021 season?