“I think they need to cool it a bit”– Former World Champion recommends Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen to go easy

“I think they need to cool it a bit”– Former F1 driver Damon Hill opines that both Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen are being overly aggressive.

The neck to neck fight between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton ended in a collision, giving a 51G crash to the Dutch racing driver, who is still healing from his bruises.

Former World Champion Damon Hill has recommended both Verstappen and Hamilton to mellow down their aggression a little bit, as in Silverstone, it was extreme, according to him.

“I think they need to cool it a bit. I think they were both going at it scarily aggressively in that race,” he said on the F1 Nation podcast. “And I think it was a product of the previous race.”

“In other words, the sprint on Saturday gave knowledge to Mercedes that if Max got out in front, you wouldn’t see him for dust and I think they knew they had to get ahead.”

“So it was a combination of factors that might have made Lewis a little more desperate and aggressive, and Max as well, because that opening half a lap was possibly the most exciting and daring and also slightly risky opening lap I’ve seen in I don’t know how long.”

“You’ve seen the replays and you see on social media, people in the crowd have got footage of Max flying towards them in the grandstands and that car was moving really fast. Max did take a hell of a whack.”

“So it was all a bit risky really, and I think we were lucky we didn’t have an injury.”

The dawn of a new era

Hill then claimed that Verstappen’s challenge to Hamilton is equal to what the rise of Michael Schumacher was to Ayrton Senna, and he feels this is a cycle.

“The rivalry we are watching is the changing of the guard for the future of the sport,” Hill added. “We are seeing a guy not letting go, not giving up on a world title because it’s the final cherry on the cake, and Max will try to stop that.”

“And that’s where we had Michael Schumacher coming up on the rails to Ayrton Senna in 1994. It’s fantastic to get to a place of dominance, but there’s always someone new coming up. You know time is against you, and the new era will be someone else.

“And actually letting go of your position, your identity as the man, is quite difficult.”

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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