Max Verstappen used all of his tools in his battle with Lewis Hamilton in 2021.

Bradley Scanes, former trainer for Max Verstappen, has revealed that the four-time world champion ‘found someone online’ who could build a simulation of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit before his battle with Lewis Hamilton at the end of their 2021 Drivers’ Championship title fight.

Verstappen and Hamilton’s battle in 2021 was one of the most thrilling title fights in Formula One history, and with just two races remaining in the titanic fight, the duo headed to race in Saudi Arabia for the first time. The Jeddah Corniche Circuit posed a significant challenge, but the Dutchman was ready. “Max often gets branded as this natural talent, but there’s a reason why he goes out in FP1 and sets purple after purple after purple [sectors], whilst other drivers set up,” Scanes told the High Performance Podcast.

“It is because he’s been practicing the track for hours and hours in the week leading up to the race. The first year that we went to Saudi Arabia, is that nobody could get a handle on that circuit for FP1, and Max just kept going purple, purple, purple, and it is a difficult track.

“Red Bull didn’t even have the simulator version of the track in their simulator, and Max had managed to find someone online to build out what the track looked like to put into his own simulator.”This is sort of the work ethic, the differences that make champions. This is 2021, we’re in a title fight, every little bit matters, and ultimately, we didn’t win Saudi for a number of reasons, but you could see the pace when he first set off. Actually, his qualifying lap before he pinged the wall [in Q3] could have probably gone down as one of the greatest ever.”

As Scanes mentioned, Verstappen did not win the race in Jeddah. Instead, the newly constructed street circuit played host to one of the most dramatic clashes between the two title contenders of the 2021 season.

After red flag restarts caused mayhem at Turn One, Verstappen made an illegal overtake on the seven-time world champion on lap 37. He was told to give the position back, and after slowing down dramatically in front of the Brit, the two drivers collided, earning the Dutchman a 10-second time penalty.

However, in Abu Dhabi, Verstappen came out on top. The 27-year-old made an overtake on the final lap following a controversial safety car restart, snatching the Drivers’ Championship title from his rival and stamping his name in the history books.