Has Formula 1 ever been this exciting?

The good citizens of Stevenage would be well advised to prepare extensively for the likely open-top bus parade of their most famous citizen should Lewis Hamilton clinch his position as the best -Formula 1 driver in the world (ever) this weekend in Abu Dhabi. Because it could take some time. The Hertfordshire new town is a pleasant enough place, but it’s adorned with enough mini-roundabouts and dual carriageways to give even the most assiduous bus parade driver seizures.

Still, if ever the extravagantly tonsured motor-racing ace deserved homage from his home town, it would be if he wins the 2021 driver championship. This has been an F1 season like no other, with movie moguls presumably queuing up to chronicle the epic rivalry between Hamilton and ‘Mad’ Max Verstappen, another of those famous Belgians, incidentally (even if he prefers to think of him-self as Dutch). They are two of the best drivers in history and together they are bringing in a new, much younger audience.

If F1 bosses are seriously trying to calm down the antagonism between the two, I would be surprised: you couldn’t buy this level of publicity. Nonetheless, it might prove a dangerous game. Verstappen has already landed on top of Hamilton during the Italian Grand Prix in September — so who knows what the final instalment of terrifying bumper racing will bring in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

Verstappen races rather too hard for many. Ruthless has become reckless and that means dangerous. Now the title will be decided on a circuit where overtaking has been next to impossible. Hamilton deserves the title simply by dint of doing his job within the rules, and that means within the white lines.