Max Verstappen says he is not bothered by the prospect of Mercedes protesting against his Abu Dhabi Grand Prix win and already feels like a world champion.
The 24-year-old has been revelling in the success of his maiden F1 world title, clinched from Lewis Hamilton on Sunday in controversial circumstances, and he is scheduled to collect the championship trophy at the FIA award gala in Paris tonight. The trophy presentation is set to take place just as the deadline for Mercedes to make a final protest passes, at 7pm GMT.
Verstappen said: “I’m fine, I don’t even think about it too much, because I do feel like the world champion, and it doesn’t matter what they try to do. We won it on track, we won it when there was a green light and we passed them on track, and they will never be able to take that away from me anyway. About the possible appeal – I’m not busy with that. As a team of course it might be disturbing, but for us we have been really enjoying the last few days.”
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