After the last race between Hamilton and Verstappen in the Saudi Arabian GP last weekend, a debate has been generated about the different ways of thinking and acting between the two.
Because Verstappen has always been singled out as more aggressive and willing to push the limits in wheel-to-wheel battles, and Hamilton has openly spoken of wanting to be the “purest” of drivers.
But Christian Horner believes that the situation is not so clear cut. Indeed, it suggests that the way Hamilton at one point ran Verstappen off the track at the final corner of the Jeddah circuit shows that he, too, is willing to push things to the limit.
Asked to defend Max Verstappen against the accusation that he is the only one willing to crash, the Red Bull Racing principal said: “I would ask them to check Lewis’s entry into the last corner. He pushed Max off the same way”.
“Any driver who has been through karting or raced in any category knows it’s all about racing hard. That’s how these guys have raced throughout their careers.”
“Lewis is very cunning in the way that he does it sometimes. Just look at the last corner when he took Max out, and there was also another corner where he opened the wheel – I think it was Turn 1 as well.
“These are two guys who are fighting over very small margins and pushing each other to the limit. And if you don’t want them to go wide in the corners, put in gravel run-offs.”
The fight between Hamilton and Verstappen touched the drama several times in Jeddah, where finally the only sanctioned was the Dutchman.
With such an intense rivalry, there is a high probability that the tension will rise even more in the final race of the Abu Dhabi GP, where the title will be played.
However, Horner isn’t too concerned about that situation and says the focus will simply be on finishing ahead.
“I think winner takes all, right?” he continued. “Whoever finishes ahead is the world champion, so we’ll see. We have a chance.”
“We have to try and beat Lewis one more time this year. Performance is on their [Mercedes’] side at the moment, they’ve won three races in a row. They’re going to be very, very competitive in Abu Dhabi.”
“We expected Saudi Arabia to have a big advantage over us because of the track layout and we were able to fight hard. We went for it and I think Max was outstanding all weekend.”
