“It’s exactly what we want”– Mark Webber urges F1 to let Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen rip each other apart in the championship race.
In the last Grand Prix weekend, the tensions between Red Bull and Mercedes soared high, as Lewis Hamilton collided with Max Verstappen forcing the Dutchman to suffer a 51G crash at the fastest turn of the Silverstone.
Red Bull is pushing hard for a harsher penalty against Hamilton, and Helmut Marko even asked for reforms in such rules to avoid such “injustices” in future. Still, their former driver holds a contrary view, as he wants both drivers to rip each other apart.
The FIA has announced a summons for Red Bull and Mercedes to review the Verstappen/Hamilton crash on Thursday in Hungary. Red Bull exercising its right to review the incident #F1
— Luke Smith (@LukeSmithF1) July 27, 2021
“It’s brilliant. It’s exactly what we want,” he said. “I think it was one of the best first laps we’ve seen in a long time. It’s been coming, and they’ve had some brilliant wheel-to-wheel battles – Barcelona, Imola, Bahrain. We all knew this was coming. Bring on more of it.
“The sense of occasion at Silverstone was just extraordinary, and it was one of the best Grand Prix I’ve been to in a long time. The fans, 120,000 there on race day. The two big boys are in the front row.
“A brilliant first lap – they just missed each other in Turn 1 on the exit, wheel-to-wheel on the run to Brooklands, and the obviously Lewis had a go into Copse and it didn’t quite work out.”
‘Lewis is magical in Budapest’
The seven-time world champion has the record of eight wins in Hungary, his joint-most wins at a circuit (Silverstone matched last week). Thus, Webber believes Hamilton would be a tough challenge over there but acknowledges Verstappen’s prowess at Hungaroring.
“I think that Lewis is magical at Budapest, he’s absolutely phenomenal at that track,” said Webber. “Mind you Max is handy as well. I think the Red Bull will be strong at that track, so Max could have a bit of a Red Bull Ring sort of weekend – pole and then disappear.”
“Lewis might not get a punch on him. But let’s see. As I said, Hamilton has won a lot of races at the Hungaroring in sub-par machinery. Races he had no right to win, but he did win.”
“Hamilton is going to need to be at his best again. Verstappen is… you know, he’s a gladiator. That’s exactly what we expect of him. It’s going to be a good weekend.”
