“We will see more collisions”– Toto Wolff thinks F1 can’t think that collisions between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen are over.
During the British Grand Prix, the two leading drivers of the championship– Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton collided, forcing the former to suffer a 51G crash.
Giving a ten-second penalty to Hamilton and causing massive controversy. But Mercedes team principal believes that this is not the end, and we may witness more crashes between the two in future.
Max Verstappen: “Very disappointed with being taken out like this.”
Lewis Hamilton: “I will not be bullied into being less aggressive.”
Red Bull team principal Horner: “It was dangerous, it looked desperate, he’s put a competitor in hospital.” pic.twitter.com/3slxeheKNG
— The Field (@thefield_in) July 19, 2021
“I think that the intensity has increased since Silverstone. It certainly will not be the last time they fight for position and hopefully they can do it in a sportsmanlike way. And, if not, we will see more collisions,” said Wolff to Motorsport.
Though the duo has been involved in multiple individual battles, this was for the first time when the two had such a dramatic collision, while the competition between them is the most intense ever since Verstappen made his debut.
Lewis Hamilton opted to hold the ground.
Wolff reveals that earlier, Hamilton had hardly ever crashed with Verstappen because the Briton opted to take the long battle, but this time he didn’t want to lose the ground because he wouldn’t have recovered against a faster Red Bull.
“I think part of his [Hamilton’s] success is not only his race craft but also his maturity,” said Wolff. “Long-term strategy is important to win championships because you need to score points.
“It has come to a situation that ceding a track position has been part of the pattern of the last few races. This time neither of them conceded and it ended up in a heavy collision.”
“I think he’s much beyond proving a point,” said Wolff. “He is a 99-time race winner, and seven-time world champion. There is nothing Lewis Hamilton needs to prove to anybody anymore.”