“I’m one hundred percent sure”– Daniel Ricciardo is confident Max Verstappen would have helped Lewis Hamilton if he had known the latter is hurt.
Max Verstappen was severely criticised for walking away from the crash site without checking on Lewis Hamilton whether he was hurt or not.
But Daniel Ricciardo feels that Verstappen had a hint that Hamilton is fine; that’s why he left; otherwise, he is sure that the Dutchman would have leapt to help.
Christian Horner: Max, you need to finish above Lewis
Max Verstappen: Say no more#ItalyGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/Yyad66n5N5— Mr. Deadpan (@CfcDeadpan) September 12, 2021
“I know Max, we were teammates for a few years,” Ricciardo told the Pardon My Take podcast. “That’s him, he is a competitor he’ll leave it on the track and that’s it.”
“I guess he still maybe was carrying a bit of anger or a little bit of frustration from Silverstone. Maybe that’s why he just said ‘stuff this’ and walked away.”
“I saw him go over his head but then stopped a bit more forward. I think where Lewis was trying to reverse and get out, maybe Max saw that and thought, ‘okay Lewis is fine,’ but I don’t know.”
We wouldn’t turn our backs
Ricciardo claims that there is an unsaid understanding between all the drivers, where they would never hesitate to help their contemporary if required.
“If we go through an accident and we know the other driver was injured, I’m one hundred percent sure we would all try to help, we wouldn’t just turn our backs.”
Further, Ricciardo also defended Verstappen for pulling the move over chicane, which resulted in a collision, and have imposed a three grid penalty on him for the Russian GP.
“I don’t think what Max did was stupid, he saw an opportunity and went for it, but it was obviously not the best,” he concluded. While Verstappen and Hamilton had their worst outing in Monza, it was a night to remember for Ricciardo as he bagged his first win with McLaren.
