Lewis Hamilton does not want to play dirty with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to win the 2021 F1 championship trophy.
Mercedes’ team principal Toto Wolff suggested a possible Ayrton Senna-Alain Prost situation between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. Wolff believes that an on-track contact with Verstappen cannot be ruled out if the championship comes to the final race.
However, the seven-time world champion dismissed any notion of an on-track incident with the Dutchman. He made himself clear that if he won the championship, it would be the right way. And in case he does not, he is prepared to accept the loss similarly.
The legendary rivalry between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost had many major flashpoints during the 80s and 90s. But the turning point in the rivalry was at the 1989 Japanese GP when Senna crashed with Prost to try and win the title fight.
1989 #JapaneseGP 🎌 Ayrton Senna in McLaren MP4/5 – Honda RA109E #V10 wins at Suzuka but later was disqualified handing the title to teammate Alain Prost (Video: @F1) pic.twitter.com/pb9OovcCu6
— Zdravko (@zdravkost) October 13, 2019
The Austrian said, “if it was to come to the scenario of the last race in Abu Dhabi and they [Hamilton and Verstappen] were to be racing each other for the title, whoever is in front is absolutely going to try to do the same as in the Senna-Prost years.”
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Lewis Hamilton wants to win in the right way
Both Hamilton and Verstappen have had their share of on-track incidents this season. Two of the major ones were when Verstappen ended up in the wall after contacting the Mercedes driver at the Silverstone and when both the drivers hit the gravel after making contact going into Turn 1 at the Italian GP.
Ahead of this weekend’s Mexican GP, Hamilton said, “I have never won a championship in that way and would never want to. So, that’s from my perspective, my point of view. I’m here to win in the right way and that’s through sheer skill and determination and hard work.”
“You know how I’ve won my championships in the past and I always want to win it the right way. If you’re going to lose it, you lose it the right way also: with dignity and knowing that you’re giving it your all and you’ve done things the right way and you’ve worked as hard as you could,” he further added.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is currently 12 points ahead of the seven-time world champion trying to win his first championship.
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