'Just want a clean championship' claims Mercedes' Wolff; Horner says he didn't 'know what Hamilton was doing'
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Published 06/12/2021 at 12:31 GMT
With a week to go until the Formula 1 season finale, temperatures are threatening to boil over after a tempestuous Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The two championship leaders, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, came together once and complained about each other on their radios during the race. The team principals are also at odds.
‘Difficult to fight with a driver that doesn't work with the same rule book' – Hamilton
Red Bull’s Christian Horner and Mercedes’ Toto Wolff are at odds over the controversies from Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The F1 race saw two restarts, a red flag, countless safety cars and virtual safety cars, as well as serious shunts in the pack and a collision between championship leaders Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton ultimately came away with the win, which leaves him level on points with the Dutchman with just the Abu Dhabi race to come next weekend.
Given the amount of incidents, it is perhaps no surprise that Horner and Wolff have different perceptions of the race.
“We were probably lucky to come away with second, especially given the amount of damage we had to the back of our car,” Red Bull team principal Horner claimed.
I don’t know what Lewis was doing because Max was trying to give the place up as instructed by Race Control, he lifted and you can hear that, it was clear we were trying to give the place up and we’d informed Race Control.
Regarding the collision between the two drivers, Horner perhaps inevitably suggested the fault lay with Hamilton.
“I don’t know if Lewis didn’t want to pass before the DRS zone, but it was very strange to have him drive straight up the back of Max,” he stated.
“We got a five-second time penalty, I thought it was on the harsh side, they both went wide and were racing. Max has fought like a gladiator this weekend and given it everything.
“So we now have one chance. We have a week to regroup and now it goes down to the wire at Abu Dhabi.
“It’s a straight-out fight as it has been for the entire year. For the fans it is fantastic, it keeps the championship dream alive and we have one shot and it’s time to take it.”
Meanwhile, speaking to Sky Sports, Wolff hinted that he was unhappy with Verstappen’s behaviour leading up to the coming-together.
Wolff said: “I don’t want to have dirty laundry in here...
“The telemetry shows that [Verstappen] was slowing down, then accelerating again, then slowing down.”
“No, [Hamilton] didn’t know [Verstappen was supposed to let him past], and I think that [was due to] the wrong sequence of messages coming through there.
“I don’t remember, honestly. It was so intense, the sequence of events. I think it could have been confusion, absolutely, but the stewards will look precisely at the telemetry and come to a judgement.
“If the drivers were not informed properly, that’s going to play a big role.”
Wolff suggested that he wanted any tension resolved before the weekend’s finale, saying: “We’re biased, obviously from our side there was frustration [after the first red flag]. I need to reserve judgement, see the race again tomorrow.
"It’s really [Verstappen’s] driving that needs to be assessed and looked at. It’s hard, really hard, maybe over-the-line hard.
We just want a clean championship. If it’s Max [who wins], I’ll make peace with that. But we just want it to be [fair].
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