Things will get worse before they subside. At the Italian Grand Prix, drivers Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton collided again and with eight dates on the Formula 1 calendar to compete in 2021, this will happen again.
The young Dutchman from Red Bull and the seven-time world champion are very close in the standings and also on the track, they always run “nose to nose” and, although there is great respect between them, contacts will continue, it is inevitable.
It happened in Imola, when Verstappen “pushed” Hamilton off the wet track by the time they reached a curve side by side. Race incident.
This reached its hottest point with contact at Silverstone, also the high point of the season, where Hamilton played Verstappen in the first round of the Grand Prix, right at the Copse corner. The impact was very hard and could have had more serious consequences for Max. In the end, Hamilton paid with a 10-second penalty that didn’t stop him from winning the race.
On Sunday 12 September, they arrived together at Monza turn 1 on lap 26. Hamilton was coming from the breasts and Verstappen on the straight was trying to recover from a terrible pit stop. The Red Bull got to the front on the brakes, but when he turned right he found himself without space, stepping on the laundry or sausage, this limit that marks the limit of the track.
The jump of the RB16B made them launch and the Red Bull ended up mounted on the rollbar and halo of Hamilton’s Mercedes. Extremely dangerous situation from which the Englishman escaped unharmed, but both left. After deliberating after the race, listening to the two drivers, the stewards decided to put three penalty places on the Sochi grid for Verstappen.
It looks like the “sterwards” listened to Toto Wolff who dubbed Verstappen’s maneuver a “technical foul,” in the style of football, one last man sweeping so he doesn’t score the opposite.
The officers’ explanation was that, according to him, Max tried “too late” to overtake him and had no “right to space.”
Obviously, Red Bull director Christian Horner disagreed with this, for him it was a race incident, where every driver was equally to blame.
There are only five points of difference between this pair of “competitive beasts,” neither of which will yield. There will surely be no “bad milk,” but every boot will be to hold your breath.
No “mother of charity” has been crowned F1 champion. From now on you will win the one that does not wrinkle, but also the one that is smart enough not to lose points for a fever.
It’s not a Senna-Prost-style situation in 1989, but it wouldn’t be strange if in Abu Dhabi we saw Max and Lewis walking into the pits, after neither of them gave up an inch in the last battle for the title.