Last year, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton provided us with one of the greatest title battles that Formula 1 has ever seen.
The pair went toe-to-toe throughout the 2021 season, with hardly a week passing by when there wasn't some sort of incident involving the two. Of course, the championship would come down to the very last race where the Red Bull driver won in controversial circumstances.
While it seemed like the start of a great rivalry, that hasn't really been the case so far in 2022. Mercedes' struggles this season mean that Hamilton has not been able to with the Belgian, with Verstappen currently holding a 63-point lead over the field in the driver standings.
His nearest rival has been Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari driver would be a lot closer in terms of points were it not for his team's reliability at times, with himself and Verstappen having some very entertaining duels when both cars are performing at a high level.
Max Verstappen compares Ferrari rivalry with Mercedes
Red Bull and Ferrari are certainly the two biggest competitors in the sport at the moment, although there doesn't seem to be much bad blood between the pair. That is quite the contrast to their rivalry with Mercedes in 2021 when relations between the teams became increasingly strained as the season went on.
Speaking to Sky Italy ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen admitted that his relationship with Leclerc and Ferrari is very different to the one he had with Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes.
I prefer what we have now because, first of all, Charles I know very well, he's a nice guy, we are a similar age - I think we are only three weeks apart.
I think also we are fighting a very well-respected competitor in terms of Ferrari. The way they go about the way we are fighting… when they win a race we can go to them and say well done, and when we win a race they can say well done, and I really respect that.
Also, certain people within the team, even Mattia, I have a really good relationship with him.
On Saturday night, we even had a laugh in Paul Ricard [after French Grand Prix qualifying], and I think that's great because that's what racing should be about. We are hard competitors on the track and we will always try to beat each other, which I think is very normal, but outside of it you can have a good time as well, and that's what I really enjoy about this year.
Let's say it like this, I would not be on a table on Saturday night having a laugh with (Mercedes).
Just the click we have at the moment with the team, and I have a lot of respect for Ferrari in general.
While Mercedes are not quite competing at the top of the grid this season, their relationship with Red Bull remains all but non-existent.
Fans certainly enjoy the drama that comes along with that, although it is interesting to see what ways the various rivalries teams participate can be handled in different ways.
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