Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, and Valtteri Bottas may not have a lot of things in common. However, all three of them are well-established F1 stars, who know what it takes to win a race. That’s why, when Renault claimed that they had the best engine out of all F1 teams back in 2019, Verstappen and Hamilton, and Bottas, who were in a press conference together, couldn’t control their bemusement.
Renault in 2019, was a team that was seemingly in the ascendency. They just had a seven-time race winner, Daniel Ricciardo join them and with Cyril Abiteboul at the helm, things were looking bright. Unfortunately, they couldn’t really make a push for the podium in most of the races and were stuck in the midfield.
Regardless, Abiteboul’s confidence never took a hit. Ahead of the 2019 Hungarian GP, the French team’s ex-boss went on to claim that the Renault-powered engines had 1000 horsepower. Verstappen, Hamilton, and Bottas, however, were having none of it.
Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, and Valtteri Bottas’ hilarious reaction
During a press conference in Budapest, a reporter asked the three drivers what the status of their engines was, considering the fact that Renault now has 1000 horsepower. Verstappen was the first driver to find this claim absolutely ridiculous. The video of his interview with unearthed by a fan on Twitter.
“If they claim to have 1000 horsepower,” he began. “They have a really bad car. I think it’s better to do the talking on the track. Than in the media anyway.”
Verstappen’s future rival, Hamilton, who was sitting on his left, was smirking the whole time. When the reporter asked Hamilton about the Mercedes’ engine, he replied by saying that he has “no idea”.
Bottas continued the banter by sarcastically saying that he was facing many problems with his engine. However, when he asked his engineers how much horsepower they had, they too replied by saying that they don’t know.
Did Renault actually have a 1000 horsepower engine?
When it comes to winning races or fighting for podiums, Renault’s 2019 season was absolutely woeful. However, their midfield expectations were met, as they were competitive enough to get into the top 10 in almost every single race.
The Enstone-based outfit (now known as Alpine) finished P5 with 91 points, 54 behind fourth placed McLaren. Mercedes and Red Bull meanwhile, finished first and second with 739 and 504 points respectively, which says a lot about the difference in performance.
As Max Verstappen suggested, if Renault did have a 1000 horsepower engine, they must have had a really sub-par car, that couldn’t help the drivers utilize the performance of the engine. Regardless, the comments made by the three drivers in that press-conference were meant as a joke in response to the question which the reporter asked them.
