Max Verstappen’s former performance coach Brad Scanes has detailed the level of mind games that would go on between the Dutchman and Lewis Hamilton.
The two drivers have gone toe-to-toe for championships and especially in the controversial 2021 season, efforts were made to get inside each other’s heads.
“As someone in sport, working in sport, I consider myself extremely lucky to be a part of that (2021) season,” Scanes told the Sky Sports F1 podcast. “We just witnessed two of the best go at it head-to-head, neck and neck, and you don’t often get that opportunity.
“It’s the little things they’ll try and do to get one over each other. In the cool down room after a race, who could be the longest to get ready and take the most time. And it’s those little mind games that those two were playing with each other.
“I think back to when I used to play football, I used to play central defence, and if you had a really good striker, you’d give him a little elbow, you’d pull his shirt a little bit, you’d tread on his toe a little bit. It’s the little things like that which kind of crop up and stuff.
“So there were often a few conversations on race strategy and that sort of thing. But little things like that, they just seem to come. And you see it in the very best when you’re in a title fight, those little things, they do come.”
