Verstappen clinched his first F1 world championship in Sunday's dramatic Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after a late Safety Car intervention and controversial ꧋call to set up a one-lap shoo꧋t-out for victory brought him back into contention. 

Hamilton had controlled the final round of the season and lookeꦉd set to win both the race and a record-breaking eighth world title until Nicholas Latifi crashed his Williams at Turn 14 in the closing stages. 

While Brundle believes there is no doubt Verstappen is a worthy champion after winning more races and taking more pod✨iums than any other driver, he felt a share🍌d title would be the fairest outcome. 

"Does Max deserve🀅 the championship? Of course he does," Brundle wrote in his l🌟atest column for Sky Sports. 

"He led 652 laps compared with Lewis' 303 laps. He departed 15 of the 22 races leading the championship includꦐing the last seven. He won 10 races c▨ompared to eight for Lewis (yes I know, we'll get onto that shortly), and it was 18 podiums playing 17.

"And he didn't have the best of luck along the way, unti꧂l th🐟e last few miles of course.

"Lewis would equally have deser♐ved his eighth title, I wish they could share it to be frank. His raw speed, cons✱istency, determination, style, class, and stamina, particularly in the closing stages, was outstanding as he delivered another blistering start in his 288th GP at approaching 37 years old.

"The final few laps in Abu Dhabi, when the wor♕ld's eyes were on us in s𓆏taggering numbers, were not our finest moment and some things have to change this winter. We certainly confused our fans on Sunday.”

Brundle’s comments are similar to ones made by t🍰wo-time world champion Fernando Alonso after Sunday’s race. 

The🐻 Alpine driver suggested the title could be “split in two” between V😼erstappen and Hamilton, hailing both driver’s campaigns as “outstanding”. 

"It ♉is going to be a big topic I guess, but if you take the 22 races, as I said on Thursday any of the two could be a world champion,” Alonso said. 

"I think more than any other year if you could split the trophy in two, this was 🥂the year to do it. Because both of the♑m were outstanding."