“Lewis is the contrary of someone that ever drives dirty”– Toto Wolff defends Lewis Hamilton’s driving style after the British GP incident.
After his collision with Max Verstappen in Silverstone, Lewis Hamilton has come under massive public scrutiny that caused a DNF for the Dutch race driver.
Red Bull’s camp has accused Hamilton of dirty driving and asked the FIA to penalize him even more, but Mercedes’ team principal has come to defend the Briton, by saying he’s anything but a dirty driver.
“Everybody has an opinion, that’s okay,” he said about Red Bull’s comment. “Everyone will have a certain bias towards incidents like that.”
“When you hear the comments about his driving and the incident, Lewis is the contrary of someone that ever drives dirty,” he explained.
“I think he’s a sportsman. We have not seen any big incidents with him. And that’s why he keeps his demeanor. And you saw it, the incident wasn’t particularly bothering him.”
Anger in Red Bull at peak
Red Bull’s camp is intensely furious at Hamilton, including Max Verstappen’s father Jos Verstappen, who apparently wants to cut all ties with Wolff. On the other hand, Christian Horner has accused Hamilton of keeping safety in jeopardy.
“Of course he put safety in jeopardy,” said Horner. “I think a move in that corner, every GP driver knows, is a massive, massive risk. You don’t stick a wheel up the inside there, without it being huge consequences.
“We’re just fortunate enough that, after a 51g accident, that there wasn’t somebody seriously hurt. And that’s what I’m most angry about.
“It is just the lack of judgment or the misjudgment and desperation in this move that, you know, thankfully we got away with. Had that been an awful lot worse, a 10-second penalty would have looked pretty measly.”
He added: “I think if you look at the overhead he [Hamilton] ran wide into the corner because he carried too much speed. That move was never on.
“For a world champion with seven titles, that was an amateur’s mistake and a desperate mistake, and you know we were just very, very lucky that somebody wasn’t badly injured.”
