Lewis Hamilton did his best to “break the ice” and not extend any animosity with Max Verstappen after their collision in Hungary. However, after hearing Verstappen’s team radio rants, Hamilton chose to take a swipe at the Dutchman. Verstappen has now responded to Hamilton, stating that the Briton can have his “opinion”.
The seven-time champion had stated, “You have to behave like a world champion, not like last weekend”. Hamilton highlighted that it was Verstappen’s duty to understand the bigger picture and how he is part of the team before lambasting them on the radio.
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However, Verstappen calmly defended himself by saying, “You know what it is? Everyone can have their opinion. That’s all fine, but I can’t do anything with it”. The 26-year-old also stated that he was not affected after his collision with Hamilton and these comments on his radio chatter.
Per RacingNews365, he added, “That’s not my problem either. You don’t have to talk about it for a long time. It’s all resolved and we’ll just move on”. As seen in the Budapest paddock, Verstappen had promised Hamilton that they would talk about their collision, as the Dutchman was giving an interview when the latter walked into the media pen.
Given there haven’t been any tense comments from Hamilton or Verstappen about the Hungarian GP collision in Belgium, the matter seems resolved between the two champion drivers. However, Verstappen’s radio rants have become a big point of contention since last weekend.
Verstappen is under the radar after his Hungarian GP outburst
From F1 pundits to internal Red Bull stakeholders like Helmut Marko, everyone has shared their takes on Verstappen’s angry outbursts on his team radio with his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase. While Sky Sports commentator David Croft deemed Verstappen’s anger was a result of his late-night sim racing, Marko gave a balanced opinion.
The Austrian partly criticized and also defended the Dutchman. Marko first rubbished the sim racing theories, claiming that Verstappen has a different rhythm and has even won races like Imola after sim racing at night.
However, the Red Bull advisor still assured that the 26-year-old has agreed to not engage in sim racing that late on race weekends. Meanwhile, Marko also stated that Verstappen’s comments along with some of Lambiase’s comments on the radio were “inappropriate” despite the high emotions during the race.
As a result of the same, it has also made the situation a bit tense for Red Bull in Belgium. However, Lambiase and Verstappen have talked it out and are completely focused on delivering a good weekend at Spa Francorchamps.
