Max Verstappen feels that Mercedes have taken an aggressive approach towards his team lately and are finally ‘showing their true colors’.
The battle between Red Bull and Mercedes has been heated all season long. However, relationship between the two have soured further, following the Sao Paolo GP last week.
Max appeared to push Lewis off track to hold his position in the 48th lap. This was met with anger in the Mercedes garage which was aggravated after the stewards decided not to penalize the Dutchman. Earlier this week, the Brackley based team requested a ‘right for review’ for the incident in Brazil.
Mercedes have formally requested a review of Verstappen and Hamilton’s #BrazilGP duel ‘in light of new evidence’#F1 pic.twitter.com/KWRg6CjA5c
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 16, 2021
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff admitted that he was done playing nice. He called the decision by the FIA ‘laughable’ and stated that diplomacy was over.
Verstappen seems to think that Mercedes are blowing this entire saga way out of proportion.
“You can see their true nature come out”- says Max Verstappen
In spite of Max’s questionable driving at Interlagos, Lewis won the race. The Mercedes was much faster than the Red Bull last week and 24 year old could not hold Hamilton off.
Despite the result, Mercedes seem hell bent on forcing some sort of penalty on the Red Bull driver. When asked if Toto Wolff and Mercedes are being too aggressive with the Milton-Keynes based team, Verstappen replied by saying that he is not at all surprised.
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) November 16, 2021
“Then of course, you can see their true nature coming out,” Verstappen said. “It’s not my team, of course, so I don’t have to deal with that. But that’s when you show your true colors and show who you really are.
“I think it’s important for us to just concentrate on ourselves and stay focused, like we always have been doing. “So that’s what we will do for the next races as well.”
Also read: Lewis Hamilton claims F1 needs to scrutinize Saudi Arabia and Qatar over their human rights issues
Verstappen calls for a change in engine penalties handed out by the FIA
Hamilton started the Sao Paolo GP from 10th place. That came after the Briton took a 5 place grid penalty for changing his Internal Combustion Engine. The upgrades in his engine allowed him to breeze past the other cars due to a massive straight line speed advantage.
Verstappen said that he hopes the FIA look at how engine penalties are handed out in the future. “The first time it’s 10 places back and after that it’s five, and I find that a bit illogical,” Verstappen said.
“If you keep taking engine penalties, I think it should just stay the same [number of grid places], because you’re going over the same limit all the time.
Lewis Hamilton takes an engine change and a 5-place grid penalty for Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix #BrazilGP 🇧🇷 #F1 pic.twitter.com/wYOSouCPqf
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 12, 2021
“Yes, that’s something that could be looked at, because in Brazil, you clearly saw that the rest of the teams didn’t have a chance to do anything against Red Bull and Mercedes. “So a penalty like that is not really that big of a deal.” he concluded.
Verstappen is currently 14 points ahead of Hamilton in the standings with just 3 more races to go in 2021. F1 makes its debut in Qatar this weekend when the lights go out at the Losail International Circuit.
