French magazine that crowned Lewis Hamilton as 2021 F1 champion takes shots at Max Verstappen

French magazine Grand Prix Mag crowned Lewis Hamilton as the 2021 F1 world champion earlier this month. They have now taken another dig at Max Verstappen in a recent issue.

The magazine took shots at Max Verstappen’s lack of activism compared to fellow F1 world champions, saying:

“Sebastian Vettel makes his campaign for the LGTBQ+ community’s rights, Lewis Hamilton to end racism and Max Verstappen… for his own right of becoming a world champion.”

The magazine’s jab arises from Verstappen’s recent comments defending his world title, despite the controversial circumstances of his triumph. They tried to imply that Verstappen is solely interested in his own selfish desires, while Hamilton and Vettel are using the sport as a medium to fight for greater issues.

In an earlier issue, the magazine had declared Lewis Hamilton as the “only deserving champion” from last season. They further claimed that the Briton had thus surpassed the great Michael Schumacher’s record of seven world titles.

In a statement published with the dramatic declaration, the outlet had explained its reasoning as thus:

“Sport and fair play make Hamilton the only eight-time world champion in F1 history. He thus exceeds the seven titles of Michael Schumacher and should display 104 victories on his list. And that it was decided that it was better for F1 that the race resume for the sole needs of television without the conditions for this resumption being met is neither normal nor arguable.”

---

Lewis Hamilton “single-handedly saved F1”, claims controversial biography

A controversial biography of Lewis Hamilton published in late 2021 claims the Briton was single-handedly responsible for saving F1, after making it “fashionable” again.

In a chapter titled “The boy who saved F1”, author Frank Worral, an F1 analyst for The Sun and The Sunday Times, wrote:

"He had made a stagnant sport fashionable. He had managed to transform motor racing from being an almost marginal sport to a mass spectacle. He became an unlikely saviour of F1 and the British GP. Lewis had become the epitome of cool, the person to whom an army of workers in the F1 industry was indebted.”

The book, touted as an “analysis”, delves into Hamilton’s early days in F1 and has come under fire for its negative portrayal of two-time F1 world champion Fernando Alonso.