This weekend’s final race of the 2021 season could go down as one of the greatest battles in Formula 1 history. But will it?
Lewis Hamilton will attempt to be the first driver in history to win eight world titles, surpassing the current record held by Michael Schumacher. But Max Verstappen is primed to challenge Hamilton, Both drivers are now level on points, and that makes this weekend’s race a winner-take-all affair.
It’s not the first time the championship has come down to the wire. In 1974, both Emerson Fittipaldi and Clay Regazzoni were in the same situation with the championship decided at the 16th and final race of the season at Watkins Glen, New York.
The first lap of the race was tension-filled as both Fittipaldi and Regazzoni went wheel to wheel. Right at the start, Regazzoni nearly forced Fittipaldi off the track into the grass run-off area, but the Brazilian would not give up the fight and rechallenged the Swiss. But Regazzoni lost his challenge and fell further down the grid to 11th place, quite out of reach of the world title.
Fittipaldi won that day in his McLaren-Ford in a race that will also be remembered for the fatal accident that took Helmuth Koenig’s life. For Fittipaldi, it was his second world title, and he also ended up winning an Indycar title.
This year, the big concern is that Hamilton and Verstappen may tempt fate and collide, fighting as they are for the biggest prize in racing. That same outcome has happened before, with both drivers taken out of the race. Aryton Senna and Alain Prost battled in 1989 and 1990, taking each other out at the same Suzuka circuit.
The supreme hope is that the 2021 title will not end that way. And that’s why sportsmanship will be the watchword of the weekend.
