OPINION: What are Lewis and Max really made of? We're about to find out

Head-to-head battles in any sport have a unique intensity that lays bare the strengths and weaknesses of the protagonists. Motorsport is unusual in that these epic fights don’t happen every year, but when they do, they are stretched over many months in pursuit of the ultimate prize -- in Formula 1, the world championship -- and you can never be sure exactly how those involved will respond in this pressure-cooker environment.

With every race that passes, the stakes increase if neither driver can permanently seize the initiative. This is exactly what Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have gone through during the 2021 season.

Hamilton holds an eight-point lead at the August break, which is a difference of less than one point per race on average. With as many as 13 races and a potential 338 points remaining, that’s effectively nothing. But both drivers have been tested to their limits over those first 11 races, so what have we learned about them?

For Hamilton, this is far from his first rodeo, as he’s been fighting for F1 titles since his first season in 2007. Over the years he’s fought for championships with the best the 21st century has to offer -- Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen, Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber, Felipe Massa -- but he’s never faced an opponent quite like Verstappen before. The jury is still out on how well he has dealt with the young usurper in what is a classic generational battle that looks set to go the distance.

Hamilton has landed some blows, and taken some -- as has Verstappen -- so far this season, although you can make a case that his peaks have been slightly higher. But Verstappen has shown himself to be absolutely capable of taking on Hamilton, and has arguably been marginally the stronger all-round performer. While he is currently behind, he has unquestionably been the less fortunate of the pair, losing certain victory in Baku to a tire failure, crashing heavily at Silverstone after contact with Hamilton and having to drive sensationally to salvage a minor points finish in Hungary after Valtteri Bottas booted Lando Norris’s McLaren into him. He can be forgiven for feeling hard done by to be behind at this stage.

But it’s unlikely to faze Verstappen. He may, astonishingly, still only be a 23-year-old, but those who still regard him as a hot-headed youth haven’t been playing close attention. That he should have a hefty points lead at this point, but doesn’t, will only serve to motivate him, and there’s been no evidence of him being overly-aggressive or losing his head. His dogged drive in a Red Bull missing much of its right-side bargeboard to salvage a point or two at the Hungaroring is proof of that. No wonder Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey, who has worked with more than his fair share of world champions, has talked up Verstappen’s determination.

Losing the points lead will only serve to fuel Verstappen's fire. Andy Hone/Motorsport Images

“He has the same steely grit as any world champion, the stuff they need to dig in and keep going in the face of adversity,” said Newey. “He can put the past behind him and look forward to the next race. His driving ability is obviously superb, and he’s matured into a great racer. He’s really not made any mistakes this year. The races where he hasn’t scored heavily – Baku, Silverstone and Hungary -- have been no fault of his, but he’s kept his head and bounced back from all of those.

“I don’t think the pressure of the situation will affect him. He’s very easy to chat to and has a wide range of interests, which I think is very important for an F1 driver. If your only interest is F1, that can almost make it too important when the pressure comes on. Max has a very good balance in that respect.”

Newey would, of course, always talk up "his" driver, but what he says matches what we’ve seen from Verstappen so far this year. He’s proved that he’s learned from the experiences of the past, particular the run of blunders in the first half of 2018 that led to a fundamental change in his approach -- albeit one he denied making at the time.

Neither Verstappen nor Hamilton have been faultless this year, but intense competition is the enemy of perfection, and in such a close battle even small errors that might have gone largely unnoticed in more straightforward seasons can have a big impact. While Hamilton has made a couple of bigger errors, it’s still too close to call between the two.

But delving into the details of the season is revealing, as every race weekend tells us a little more about how Hamilton and Verstappen respond under the pressure of the battle. The obvious flashpoints have been the five races where they have directly crossed swords on track. The first blow was landed by Hamilton with an against-the run-of-play victory in Bahrain. There, Mercedes had the slower car but seized the initiative with an aggressive undercut, then relied on Hamilton’s defensive brilliance to hold off the charging Verstappen.

Tellingly, Mercedes and Hamilton had a better grasp of the way the track limits rules were being enforced in the race. Verstappen complained about Hamilton’s repeated crossing of the white line, but the race directors’ notes had made clear this was acceptable except in cases where it was in the course of an overtaking move. Verstappen later violated track limits in passing Hamilton at Turn 4 and was told to let him back past, which was as close as he got to regaining the lead. First blood to the wily master Hamilton.

At Imola, it was Verstappen who prevailed both in terms of winning the race and also Hamilton’s misjudgments. The Mercedes driver’s attempt to hang on around the outside of Verstappen at the Tamburello chicane had predictable consequences, but he recovered well, and once the tires were up to temperature he showed Red Bull-threatening pace, only to slide into the gravel at Tosa while lapping George Russell. That Hamilton recovered to finish second was fortuitous given he had lost a lap, and it depended on the red flag caused by the Russell/Bottas accident to get it back.

In Portugal, it swung back to Hamilton with Verstappen twice falling foul of track limits -- first losing pole position, then the point for fastest lap -- as well as losing out to Hamilton on track. While the Mercedes did have the edge on pace at the Algarve circuit, Hamilton also got the better of Verstappen on track by passing him after the Red Bull driver made a small error. He then hung him out to dry when Verstappen came back at him.

Spain was a similar story. Verstappen’s aggressive dive up the inside at Turn 1 earned him the lead, but Mercedes had the edge on race pace and was able to take the strategic initiative again by making an additional pitstop. Verstappen was powerless to hang on as Hamilton caught and passed him.

Monaco was a Verstappen walkover, and Hamilton’s least convincing performance of the season as he struggled more than teammate Bottas on a circuit where the Mercedes tire warm-up troubles bit hard. It should have been a similar story in Baku, where Verstappen was leading comfortably when he suffered a tire failure. But then Hamilton made his second big error of the season when he accidentally hit the so-called "brake magic" button on the rear face of the steering wheel while battling for the lead with Sergio Perez at the restart, winding the brake bias way forward and sending him up the escape road. It was perhaps better characterized as an operational error rather than a driving one, but it was hugely costly.

Monaco didn't go according to the script for Hamilton. Sam Bagnall/Motorsport Images

In France, Verstappen’s first-corner mistake handed Hamilton the lead, but Red Bull’s strategy was superior and Verstappen executed it well to win, which was followed by two dominant triumphs at the Red Bull Ring. Then came the moment that transformed the title fight -- Copse Corner, British Grand Prix, lap one.

This is a significant moment not only for the championship impact, but because of how it has changed the dynamic between the two. Hamilton knew his only hope of defeating Verstappen at Silverstone was to finish the first lap ahead, and been cautious on occasion earlier in the season -- notably at Imola and Barcelona -- he went for it. Verstappen attempted to cover the inside, didn’t do so quite enough and then tried to tough it out around the outside line. Verstappen was furious at the outcome, but Hamilton, privately, will have felt it was a point well made, even though the stewards held him responsible.

When the story of the 2021 world championship battle is finally told, rather than the in-progress, half-finished version we know today, we will understand the true significance of that moment. Verstappen has rightly been lauded for his aggressive (he calls it hard racing rather than aggressive, but they amount to the same thing -- and there’s nothing wrong with that) passes, but how he would react to being on the receiving end was an interesting question. While the accident was certainly far more Hamilton’s fault than Verstappen’s, he did have the option to back out and bank the points to consolidate his position. Sometimes, a champion has to make that choice, because feeling you were in the right doesn’t help your points balance or repair your car.

In Hungary -- before he’d been wiped out at the first corner -- Verstappen snapped at a question posed in the post-qualifying press conference about what might happen next time he and Hamilton go wheel to wheel. There’s no way to foresee the future, but how he and Hamilton react to such a situation, how much give and take there is between them, the willingness to push it to the limit, will be about more than just that single overtaking move. Instead, it’s about establishing supremacy. The fact neither will be keen to back down in such circumstances is what, combined with the relatively similar performance levels of their cars, means another clash is very possible -- in fact, arguably more likely than not.

But who will prevail? It’s impossible to say. It’s probably a question that both Verstappen and Hamilton ask themselves about the moment that is likely to come where they are very much playing the opponent rather than the situation. That’s what a great world championship battle is all about, and given both are superb drivers it should be a spectacular sight. They will test each other again, dare each other to back down when the stakes are at their highest, and it will be spectacular to watch.

We’ve learned a lot about both drivers, whether it’s the established all-time great or the pretender to the throne. Chief among those learnings is that Hamilton has lost none of his fight and fire and that Verstappen is absolutely ready to win a world championship. But they can’t both win, which is what makes this battle between the irresistible force and immovable object so glorious.

We’re going to learn a lot more before this season is out, and so are the two drivers themselves.