Before the Grand Prix of Qatar, Sunday November 21, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton have only fourteen points of difference in the standings of the drivers. With three races to go to the end of the season and in a very tight, sometimes even tense, world championship, any pretext for the competitor to be penalized is used by the teams to defend their driver.
A week after the São Paulo Grand Prix, and despite Lewis Hamilton’s victory, Mercedes is still going strong. According to the seven-time constructors’ world champion, Max Verstappen fouled the 48th lap of the race at Interlagos by forcing the British driver off the track after he had come up to the Red Bull for exceed it. The commissioners then decided not to sanction the Dutchman, but Mercedes asked for the decision to be reviewed, arguing “new evidence which was not available to the race marshals at the time of their decision”. A request rejected on Friday by the FIA (International Automobile Federation).
Before this incident in Brazil, other clashes between the two leaders of the world championship punctuated the season. In July, during the Silverstone Grand Prix, in the first round, Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes crashed into Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, sending the Dutchman to the bottom of the gravel pit, into the tire barriers, for an impact rated at 51G by the sensors of the single-seater. The Briton had received a ten-second penalty, which did not prevent him from winning the race. Sent to the hospital for further examinations, Verstappen had not at all appreciated the celebrations of the Mercedes driver after his victory, described as “disrespectful”.
At Monza in September, the two drivers clashed again, on lap 26, with the Red Bull single-seater riding the Mercedes. They had both been forced to retire and returned to their garage in a freezing atmosphere, blaming each other for the accident. Finally, the Dutchman was sanctioned with three penalty places on the grid for the next Grand Prix, in Russia.
Following the incident at Interlagos last Sunday, Red Bull and Mercedes had necessarily defended the interests of their driver, and therefore, their interests. Because beyond the battle for the drivers ‘standings, the teams are also neck and neck in the constructors’ standings, with an eleven point lead for Mercedes. They are therefore looking for the smallest flaw that can be attacked and sanctioned in their opponents. Very reassured by the muscular defensive maneuver of Verstappen in Brazil, Toto Wolff, the boss of Mercedes, had declared: “Diplomacy is over”.
Since the start of the season, Toto Wolff and his Red Bull counterpart, Christian Horner, have been fighting hard to defend their drivers at all costs. “There is respect between our two teams, but we don’t operate in the same way. For my part, I want to be on the front line, sitting on the pit wall, while Toto prefers to stay in the garage next to the media guy […] They’re different jobs and different roles, but at the end of the day we both love competition. And the more Toto gets angry, the more fun it becomes! “Horner told Channel 4.
By asking for a review of the decision of the commissioners in Brazil, Mercedes also drew a pick on the part of Max Verstappen, who estimated, at the microphone of the Dutch media, that the team “showed his true nature”. More reserved, Lewis Hamilton meanwhile wanted to calm things down: “It’s intense, the battle on and off the track… I think there is no reason that, as men, it cannot be discussed and understood. I think in the end of the day. , respect is really important, that we remain respectful of each other, on and off the track “. Toto Wolff expects a tense end of the season on the track, which could spark new sparks: “I will never give the instruction to run into anyone else, but if they make it to this last race and whoever finishes ahead of the other wins the championship, they will race each other very hard.” .