Lewis Hamilton wants to avoid making the F1 championship battle with Max Verstappen personal by maintaining respect.
Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have faced several on-track incidents in the past. Some of them turned up the tension on the track a bit higher than the other.
Two of the major flashpoints were when Hamilton collided with Verstappen pushing the Dutchman out of the track at the British GP. The second time, both the drivers hit the gravel after making contact going into Turn 1 at the Italian GP.
At the United States GP, Hamilton and Verstappen went side-by-side through a series of corners in FP2 before Verstappen ultimately backed out. The Red Bull driver raised his middle finger as Hamilton pulled away, and called him a “stupid idiot” over the radio.
Neck and neck in the title battle, and in FP2 😲 #USGP 🇺🇸 #F1 pic.twitter.com/wXuBD6kecG
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 22, 2021
However, Hamilton believes that there should be respect at the core of everything. When asked about how has Hamilton avoided making their title battle personal. He said, “I’ve been here for a long time, it’s not my first rodeo.”
“When I think about, and I hear the things that come out of drivers’ mouths, I do think there are kids watching us, and they’re looking to us for inspiration and for guidance,” he further added.
“There has been a lot of things that have been said, which is definitely not good for young kids that are watching.” He said that he is just trying to remain positive, keep calm and be respectful to other drivers.
“If I have a name in my head of what I think they are, I don’t share that. But it’s pretty easy for me. You laugh it off, and you move forwards,” the British racing driver said.
Red Bull sensation is a youngster; he will grow
Hamilton further expanded on his lack of overly emotional responses to setbacks he faced this year. While Hamilton is a seven-time world champion, Verstappen is currently fighting for his first world title.
The 36-year-old said, “I have been here a long time, I learned a lot in my time. And also, I know, Max has not won a championship in a long, long time.”
“So I know what it’s like going for your first championship, particularly in the sport, I know the pressures that come with that, and so it’s nothing less than I expected from him,” he said.
The Briton further said, “Max is still a youngster, and he’s going to be growing a huge amount over the next decade, which I think everyone will be excited to see. I just try and if I can lead by example. Because as I said, I know that I have a lot of youngsters particularly that are racing, that are looking at what I do and what I say. And that’s important for me.”
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Max Verstappen has a faster car this season
The conditions at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is favourable for the Red Bull F1 team. The track plays to Red Bull’s strengths and they have typically done well at the track in the past.
It is becoming important for Mercedes to break Red Bull’s momentum to ensure that they don’t get too far ahead in the championship. However, Hamilton believes that it was naturally up and down between the two teams.
“We thought that we would be stronger, for example, in somewhere like Austin,” Hamilton said. “They were quite a bit stronger than us in the race. So I really can’t predict it.
“What I do know is last year, they out-qualified us here, and they were down on power compared to us through the year. Now they’re ahead on power, there or thereabouts, and they’ve got a very strong car that’s been affected less by the changes in the rules, that we were affected by.
“So they’re going to be rapid this weekend. Last year I think they were almost half a second ahead of us. Our car is not better than last year’s car, I would say with those changes. It’ll be interesting to see how we fare with them this weekend.”
