The damage incurred to Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in his first-lap crash after tangling with Lewis Hamilton last weekend cost £1.3 million ($1.8m), the team has revealed.
Team principal Christian Horner continued his criticism of Hamilton and Mercedes in a column published on the team’s website on Friday.“That crash has cost us approximately $1.8 million and an accident like that has massive ramifications in a budget cap era,” said Horner.
Verstappen was seen climbing from his car after the crash before being taken to the medical centre and later to Coventry Hospital for computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging scans to check for internal injuries. Horner criticised Mercedes for not telling Hamilton to restrain from celebrating his subsequent win under the circumstances.
“I am also still disappointed about the level of celebrations enjoyed in the wake of the accident,” he said. “The Mercedes team were aware of the gravity of the crash with Max widely reported as having been hospitalised and requiring further checks.
“It is unimaginable not to inform your driver of the situation, moreover to protect your driver in case they do not show the necessary restraint in celebrating, particularly when it was as a result of an incident he was penalised for.”
Horner pointed out Verstappen was initially “unable to respond on the team radio” after the 51G impact. “In that moment you forget everything else apart from the safety of the driver, a person who is like family to all of us and it reminds you of the risk and reward in our sport.
“When he was finally able to speak, the relief was enormous and then to see him helped out of the car by the medical team, albeit somewhat dazed and in need of support, was an incredible feeling.”
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Horner addressed recent comments by Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, who felt Red Bull’s criticism of Hamilton had been personal in nature.
“At the point in time when you have a driver in hospital and the extent of any injuries have not yet been made clear, your car has been written off and the stewards have penalised the driver seen to be responsible, it is natural that emotion comes into play, for all involved, whether you feel wronged or victorious,” said Horner.
The steward ruled Hamilton was “predominantly” to blame for the collision. Horner continues to hold him entirely responsible. He insisted that at the point of contact between the pair, Hamilton’s car was on a trajectory which would not have taken him around the corner had he not hit his championship rival.
“When you look at the incident closely, Max took a wider line into Copse compared to Leclerc when Hamilton overtook him in the race,” said Horner. “Hamilton braked late and overshot the corner.
“He was travelling at such a speed that he was never going to make the apex of the corner and his trajectory through Copse meant he was never going to miss Max, even with braking he ran very wide after the accident.”
“The reality is that Hamilton has met his match in a car that is now competitive, and I agree that both drivers need to show each other respect, but Hamilton was the aggressor on Sunday,” Horner concluded.
Horner indicated Red Bull is still considering whether to request the stewards review of the incident.
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Esploratore (@esploratore1)
23rd July 2021, 17:57
They should give it a try with a review, don’t think they have much to lose, this is just not a fair outcome.
Oxnard (@montalvo)
23rd July 2021, 18:54
Plus let’s not forget the incoming engine penalty later this season. I think that’s a much harsher penalty than the 10-sec time penalty. They should have given him a drivetrough at the start of the race.
JL (@j-l)
23rd July 2021, 19:21
@montalvo This is what feels so wrong. It was probably 70-80% Lewis’ fault. It’s tough to blame him though, he made an error and got penalized for it (I agree that drive through would have been the appropriate penalty, especially when you consider the speeds at Copse – not all corners are the same and the penalties should reflect that) But somehow, the driver at fault gets 10 seconds while the other one gets a DNF, a likely engine change penalty in the future, and his team suffers a loss of 1.3 mil GBP in a cost cap era.
drmouse (@drmouse)
23rd July 2021, 19:58
Verstappen has often crashed previously into competitors, losing them points they could not afford to lose, earning them engine penalties, and costing them as much for a new chassis etc when they have budgets far less than the cost cap. Hamilton made a tiny error of the sort which verstappen has made often, much of the time without penalty. He was penalised for it more harshly than most who have made similar errors. They need to stop whining and get on with a season verstappen is probably going to win by a significant margin anyway.
Joe (@jb784)
23rd July 2021, 20:23
Precisely. Hamilton had to back out of T1 at Catalunya to avoid Max overshooting and Horner admitted as much at the time!
Oxnard (@montalvo)
23rd July 2021, 22:33
Often with the result of a engine/chassis loss of a competitor? When? Grosjean’s car in 2015 was just fine, even Ricciardo’s car wasn’t ok besides the suspension in Baku 2018. I can’t recall one incident where Verstappen had some blame in a crash that cause the loss of engine and/or chassis. And points wise I can only recall Vettel China 2018.
I mean, we can make a list of every driver if we’re gonna nitpick like that. A result like we’ve seen last weekend, where one car gets totalled by a competitor who’s is at fault, and eventually manages to get the maximum result, that’s pretty rare. Most of the time both cars are out or the car isn’t totalled.
w0o0dy
24th July 2021, 9:11
Name one crash where Max hit anyone that needed a new engine or gearbox and incurred a grid penalty. It’s a lie..
mystic one (@mysticus)
24th July 2021, 14:44
@jb784 max overshooting competitors has to back out, max undershooting competitors have to back out… are people other than max required to take a corner? lead a race?
@others max had done many accidents cost others points and financial damages they didnt need or couldnt affort… is it headlines if it happens to max? is it unfair when it happens to max/redbul only? redbul are crying wolf, they are the biggest spenders in f1, cost cap or not, they still outspend many others !
Mayrton
26th July 2021, 9:31
nr of penalty points Max over the last 2 years: 0
nr of penalty points Lewis over the last 2 years: 12
@dontbelievethepropaganda
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
23rd July 2021, 20:11
@montalvo
Even if F1 had excellent stewardship (which it doesn’t), I cannot see the stewards giving Max a drivethrough at the start of the next race when he took himself out in the process of colliding with Lewis. If Max had taken Lewis out, then maybe so but it’s still very unlikely to give him such a harsh penalty as right as it might be. Max ended up paying for his mistake on track. Maybe give him a few points on his license and call it a day!
erikje
23rd July 2021, 20:28
So you even missed this one.
All analytical pieces conclude Lewis lost control.
But it will come to you.
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
23rd July 2021, 20:59
Virtually all “practical eyes” see it as a racing incident with Hamilton been at fault about 10%
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
24th July 2021, 0:39
@erikje
For a guy who lost control, Lewis sure did an excellent job of making the corner after he was torpedoed by Maxcrash. Did the aforementioned analytical pieces witness Max lose control before and after contact?
After all, Max still had 3 wheels on the car after the accident. Do you have any clue what Lewis can accomplish on 3 wheels? If I told you, you and all the fancy schmancy analytical pieces would not believe me :-)
mystic one (@mysticus)
24th July 2021, 14:53
@erikje
all analytical pieces have a time machine called replay button and access to 1000 cameras/angles and just like you, unlimited time in hand.
if you must go deep into analysis, go to max’s onboard, he sees ham while closing the door on him, hesitates for a split sec but decides to push on expecting ham to back out… that itself puts a lot of the blame on max! he 80-90% racing incident 10-20% ham 10-0% max fault…. he has seen ham was inside even “hesitated” which means he was aware of ham’s position! thats why ham is not “fully” blamed, max had the other side of “predominantly” argument stewards made.
ham had done enough to avoid max’s silly driving style, barcelona first corner, and british gp first corner was enough is enough points… so he stood his ground, just like max did 1000000 times! If max was inside, it was 100% ham’s off at the corner, if you are really honest, but i doubt that…
erikje
25th July 2021, 20:10
@others here.
Lewis was unable to nake the corner stick.
He had to slow down after he torpedoed max. That was the point Charles passed the slowed car.
Without braking after the incident Lewis would have left the track completely.
Driver error, again.
Pula
24th July 2021, 11:21
Living in lalaland. Take of your Hamilton glasses. I thought highly of LH until this mistake. Just own your mistakes, apologize and move on. But no …that was too much to ask. He was too focused on winning for home crowd and Tom Cruise. Maybe there is where LH gets his acting lessons. Me….to blame…? Max in hospital…? His car smashed…? Me celebrating over the top….? Haha great Innocent face though. Pride comes before the fall.
mystic one (@mysticus)
24th July 2021, 14:59
@pulo
living in lalaland, take of your max blinkers… no one cares what you think… do you really believe if ham was outside and max was inside, and ham fully commited max would back out? assume the outcome would be the same, do you think max would own up to his mistake? like he did say 1000 times, it is never his fault right? do you really think horner was gonna go on the radio and send apologies? or he was gonna be on the radio saying, look max was significantly along side ham into corner, and he was on the inside, ham pushed him towards the inside max didnt have time to react before the exit, it is pure racing incident or ham has seen him, max couldnt disappear… this is the most he was gonna say, he wouldnt own the mistake, and at the end of race he and max would cheer just as much!
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
24th July 2021, 15:29
@pula sorry but you cannot be seriously blaming Lewis when Max is the most aggressive driver in the history of this sport. Max needs a lot of help from the other driver to avoid a collision – help he has received in abundance from Lewis even heading into this corner.
Max is practically the architect of all his crashes including this one and if he wants to blame anyone, he needs to start with himself. You can’t improve unless you admit that you’re doing something wrong, right? Has Max improved over the years? Nope! In all his crashes you always wonder “what was he thinking there?”
Bart
24th July 2021, 22:31
”The most aggressive driver in the sport” is the only one with NO license penalties from a whole season of F1.
Who’s wearing colored glasses? The stewards?
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
25th July 2021, 1:52
Yeah, I pointed out the irony in another post. No penalty points for a driver who’s obviously between Maldonado and Mazepin in terms of reckless driving…. It’s borderline absurd that Verstappen has no penalty points – he should be leading that category.
Neil
23rd July 2021, 19:53
They can penalise them for wasting time with frivolous reviews,
Chaitanya
24th July 2021, 6:33
If anything duo in charge of RBR should shut their fowlmouth and start spanking their golden kid instead of stoking his ego and flames of fans.
anon
25th July 2021, 15:21
They can’t review the decision because they’ve already missed the deadline request a review – that has already passed several days ago, and they are fully aware that is the case.
This is why this really sounds like it is an act that the team are putting on to string this out as much as possible in the press – if they were serious, they would not be going on in the press about it, they should have already acted.
They won’t sue, not least because there is the risk that they could end up with an unfavorable judgement – but it stirs the press up and makes their fans think that they must be in the right, even if Red Bull drop the case.
Robbie (@robbie)
25th July 2021, 15:35
anon I think it likely that they composed their website verbiage when there was still time to consider a review from the stewards. As well, as I just reminded, this is a post on their own website not something they took to the press. And what is a review request anyway? Isn’t it just a request for a more in-depth explanation of the ruling from the stewards for the sake of clarity?
anon
25th July 2021, 22:09
Your argument is flawed, as the article contains information that only became available after the deadline had already passed.
The article was also written with the intention of circulating it to the press – the point of publishing it on their website was to control the distribution of the article.
This is entirely political – they won’t sue, but it is a useful way to keep news sites publishing the narrative they want promoted and to get people like you to keep pushing the message they want to make impress on others.
On the Marbles
26th July 2021, 11:28
The price of the type of lawyers they’d instruct would probably double their losses when they lost!
Not happening
This is just an attempt to stoke an anti-Hamilton narrative AND keep the Red Bull name prominent in the Media; after all the entire reason Red Bull have an F1 team is high profile advertising, this incident is a two week dream PR advertising opportunity (oh poor us, plucky Max the hero taken out by dirty Dick Dastardly….blah blah).
Almost serious individual involved in the sport that doesn’t have a Red Bull retainer thinks it was either a racing incident or that it was Lewis who was more at fault but with Max having the option to avoid it but failing by either not backing off or going wider. In no objective analysis is it 100% Hamilton’s fault.
Hmmm
23rd July 2021, 18:11
Is Ferrari going to send Red Bull the bill for all of the damage Max has done to their cars?
Boomerang
24th July 2021, 5:37
No, they should hire him to drive pro bono.
Señor Sjon
24th July 2021, 17:29
Net result is that Ferrari has to pay Max for at least Singapore 2017, Japan 2019, Sakhir 2020 and so on. What damage did Verstappen actually do? Verstappen has zero penalty points for years now.
The Merc & Lewis plugging of aggressive Max is finding ground unfortunately. Many are falling for it, while forgetting Lewis has now hit 3 RB’s in something more than a year.
matt
25th July 2021, 14:27
max is known for his aggressive driving..but for some reason he often gets away with some of his wreckless moves.
on other occassions,other drivers have to back out,to avoid max crashing into them.
erikje
25th July 2021, 20:13
Aggressive but measured and without errors like Lewis is making.
In this race Lewis was by far the most aggressive driver but lost control of the car doing it.
Mayrton
26th July 2021, 9:59
Penalty points collected the last 2 years: Lewis 12, Max 0
Ajaxn
25th July 2021, 20:51
Yeah. i was wondering that too.
Will this become a thing. Teams calculating the cost for damages incured.
Maybe they’ll now have a spreadsheet of likely costs on hand as a rough guide to help the stewards make a decision.
Or perhaps this info will on hand for future post-race post-crash press releases. I mean where will it end.
If they’re going to release figures on the cost to fix broken cars, how about something on the cost to fix that. Im thinking of the Fuel to transport between venues, as well as fuel used per race. And then there’s the cost of switchng engines, developing new engines from scratch all becomes of this or that new engine spec.
Sure they make money back, and that alone makes this enterprise, this sport, this entertainment; self-justifying. Ultimately its another example of engineered waste. Another kind of landfill in our persuites of excellence.
So yeah, redbull tell us the costs… just don’t be selective, give us everything.
carbon_fibre (@carbon_fibre)
23rd July 2021, 18:12
I read in a motorsport.com article that Mercedes had inquired about Verstappen’s condition during the red flag. They were informed by race direction (which was informed by Red Bull) that Verstappen was conscious, had no major injuries and was relatively unharmed. That’s why Mercedes didn’t tell Hamilton to tone down the celebrations.
There’s no other way around it, Red Bull have embarrassed themselves with their handling of this incident. My opinion of Horner is only getting worse.
Zann (@zann)
23rd July 2021, 18:57
Totally agree. He’s had time to cool down and retract the disgraceful ‘professional foul’ comment, and instead he’s gone the other way. It’s been a great advert for Monster!
Charles King (@charleski)
24th July 2021, 11:29
Horner seems to think the way to get out of a hole is to keep digging. We’ve seen this sore-loser mentality coming out of Red Bull in the past. Looks they managed to suppress it for a while, but it’s just been backing up in there and is now bursting out again. It’s high time Horner, Marko & Co. learnt to suck it up and move on.
erikje
23rd July 2021, 20:45
That must be around the time he was on his way to the hospital
Not a strong story..
But it fits your narrative of course.
Learon
24th July 2021, 20:56
I am glad you were on the call when Toto called the race direction. Was it on Zoom?
erikje
25th July 2021, 20:14
Just follow the time line of events. Not so difficult.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
23rd July 2021, 22:43
Hilarious to lose respect for horner (who seems like a really good team manager tbh) and (since you didn’t imply otherwise) to have respect for wolff, who constantly lies about every subject.
Alex Limpkin
24th July 2021, 10:31
Right… so Horner praising Max for a similar thing and saying its lucky Lewis backed out or he would be in a wall is fine then.
Steve T
25th July 2021, 12:25
+1
John Toad (@)
24th July 2021, 4:00
Perhaps it’s time for the FIA to take a leaf out of the football rules and add in the “bringing the sport into disrepute” charge.
They could then apply it to the Red Bull management and shut them up for a while.
bosyber (@bosyber)
24th July 2021, 11:00
That charge is there in the rulebook already @ceevee, though it hasn’t been used to my knowledge, and while I find the Red Bull piling on a bit tedious, I don’t think this should come to the level of being the sport into disrepute (their years long decrying of Renault and the current generation of PU’s by association, even though they did have some good points about that, certainly comes a lot closer, but rightfully wasn’t considered to be enough to get such a charge either.)
TottoW
24th July 2021, 15:51
Lol you Just made my Day with this hilarious comment. 🤣
F1oSaurus (@f1osaurus)
24th July 2021, 11:55
@carbon_fibre You could see Hamilton watching TV with Angela during the red flag. He would have seen Verstappen walking around.
Horacio
24th July 2021, 16:35
Agree 100%. It seems to me that Red Bull team’s management for the crash and the aftermath was absolutely appalling, and Horner is more and more becoming a sour character, like a young Marko-in-training. The whole RB environment seems extremely “toxic”, to use a word in vogue.
bull mello (@bullmello)
23rd July 2021, 18:17
Drivers race each other. Close to the others. Inches apart. Back and forth. At times they touch their cars, together. Hamilton’s front wheel could have broken off by Verstappen and Hamilton might have ended up into the barriers. Could have happened. The shoes would have been on the other feet. Each race and incidents are different each time. Sometimes the blames goes around and around.
Hamilton and Verstappen are two of my favorite drivers on this grid. Things happen. Sometimes blame is thrown about. Next race is different…
David BR (@david-br)
23rd July 2021, 19:18
@bullmello
Me too. But Horner is a bad element, seemingly determined to stoke animosity.
David BR (@david-br)
23rd July 2021, 19:22
– as an example, in this year’s DTS (last season) he says to Albon after Hamilton sent him out, half-joking at most: ‘he really doesn’t like you, does he?’ Clearly whatever Hamilton’s motivations were, or the reasons for the collision, they had nothing personal about them. So why stir that sense of animosity? And was that even good motivation for a team manager to a young driver under pressure?
erikje
23rd July 2021, 20:47
Well it was the second time Hamilton did that to albon, to give some context.
Bart
24th July 2021, 23:05
In Lewis defense, he did not bump Albon out of the points in the single race in between the two incidents. :p
Steve T
25th July 2021, 12:28
Nikki Lauda warned that Lewis would punch Vettel, a few years ago.
Christian has a long way to go to make such an off colour remark.
bull mello (@bullmello)
23rd July 2021, 23:05
@david-br – So much stuff from Horner over the many years. Much fighting over motors, manufacturers, drivers, teams, owners, etc. It goes on and on. Hard to believe any thing he ever says.
BasCB (@bascb)
24th July 2021, 16:10
Yeah, agree with both of you there @bullmello, @david-br.
I wholly get that he was somewhat worried and upset right after the accident, or even right after the race. But keeping the hammering on this issue going by now is just tedious.
Guess now they are even with Mercedes who lost probably a similar amount of money on the crash Bottas had with Russel.
Mr A Bent
23rd July 2021, 19:46
@Bullmello
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
23rd July 2021, 22:45
No, it couldn’t, hamilton as far as I recall doesn’t come worse off an incident since 2014 spa, with the puncture with rosberg. There is ofc the mexico 2017 puncture due to vettel, but that wasn’t battling for position, it was a mistake from vettel which ended up hitting his rear tyre.
When it comes to battle for positions, he knocks out verstappen (2018), knocks out albon (2019), albon again (2020), verstappen again (2021), not to mention all the times he crashed with vettel for overtakes, vettel span, never hamilton.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
23rd July 2021, 22:46
Also with rosberg in austria 2016 it went well for hamilton.
bull mello (@bullmello)
24th July 2021, 3:01
My point – “Drivers race each other.” Hundreds of F1 drivers, likely just over 1,000 or so in many years of time. They race. Race each other. Things happen. Each race is different, even in the future.
@esploratore1 – Just one driver you are thinking of. That is your point.
John Toad (@)
24th July 2021, 4:04
Max earned the nickname of “Crashtappen” and had a website dedicated to him called “HasMaxCrshedYet”.
Don’t remember any other driver earning that sort of fame so quickly.
MSO
24th July 2021, 7:51
But was it put up Fastor than Pastor??
Dave
24th July 2021, 8:55
Pastor Maldonado too. Had a “HasMaldonadoCrashedToday” site for some time.
erikje
25th July 2021, 20:17
(@ceevee)
It was your website I guess.
F1oSaurus (@f1osaurus)
24th July 2021, 12:01
@esploratore1 Cute how you try and put the blame for that touché in 2018 from Verstappen on Hamilton.
Did Verstappen hit the apex? No, no he didn’t. He just drove straight on and only turned in far away from the racing line near the edge of the track.
Rosberg got a penalty for that same dirty move in Germany and Austria 2016. Verstappen probably would have too if he hadn’t taken himself out already.
Robin
23rd July 2021, 18:34
There isn’t a violin small enough for RBR.
Witan
23rd July 2021, 18:51
Whinge, whinge,whinge.
It is racing. Get over it.
Simon
23rd July 2021, 22:45
Yup – another reason for his nickname Whinger Spice.
Mind you, Toto Wolff said something similar after the Bottas & Russell crash at Imola, so… 🍿
paulguitar (@paulguitar)
23rd July 2021, 19:06
This is not encouraging, I had thought it was possible that Horner and Marco might apologize, or at least try to backtrack a bit as we move on to the next event. Horner called Hamilton ‘amateur’ ‘desperate’ incorrectly held Hamilton responsible for the wheel-banging on the Wellington straight, referred to the Copse move as ‘sticking a wheel up the inside’ when it was quite clearly most of the car.
Horner’s credibility must surely be in question, he’ll have had a chance now to have calmed down a lot, he was overly emotional when he had his outbursts on Sunday. I think it will do his reputation good to try to clear the air.
RandomMallard (@)
23rd July 2021, 19:37
@paulguitar I agree. Even as an RB fan, I’m pretty ashamed of the comments coming out of Horner since the incident. Mercedes and Allison at least had it in them to apologise for suggesting Raikkonen’s incident with Hamilton at Village in 2018 was deliberate. If only RB could do the same…
erikje
23rd July 2021, 20:49
The one that could have and should have apologised was Hamilton of course.
But he even fuelled the tension.
With his remarks.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
23rd July 2021, 22:47
Hamilton didn’t apologise! Compared to me horner is being too nice.
V
23rd July 2021, 20:06
I somewhat agree with Horner. Lewis had lost his temper in the heat of the battle, and amateurish and desperate moves. How did Vettel called Kvyat for a similar collision on the first lap of the race, a torpedo? So, we have a Silverstone torpedo now.
V
23rd July 2021, 20:07
demonstrated amateurish and desperate moves
George.be
23rd July 2021, 20:49
Most of the car? If you don’t hit the brakes when you should, at some point you’ll be in front of the place of where you’re supposed to be. He was on a collision course, and he’s not the rookie of the year, so no excuses please!
paulguitar (@paulguitar)
23rd July 2021, 21:06
That’s not the interpretation of most of the former F1 drivers, including several world champions, but I’m sure you know better.
ian dearing
23rd July 2021, 22:36
Yea, obviously Haikkinen, Montoya, Rosberg, Norris, LeClerc, etc know nothing. I want nuance on my racing incidents, that’s why I’m going with Bernie, Villeneuve and the Dutch guy nobody has heard of.
rodewulf (@rodewulf)
24th July 2021, 1:15
ian dearing
If you’re going for the opinion of renowed people why not accept the stewards decision on shared blame but not proportionally? The sporting guidelines don’t state that there must be equally shared blame between the drivers involved, so… What else is the argument in objection?
bosyber (@bosyber)
24th July 2021, 11:06
Hamilton had the inside line, and therefore had to break before Verstappen (and did), which is one of the reasons Vertstappen was barely ahead of him at the entry, while having his rear wheel around HAM’s front wheel at the point of contact. Had Verstappen indeed breaked first, that collision probably wouldn’t have happened and he’d have raced on, maybe even won with a faster car after the round of pitstops. Not saying that’s what he should have done, but some of the commenters here, including apparently you George.be seem to show a strong lack of understanding of racing; @paulguitar isn’t exactly wrong that most of the people that know racing tend to see it as a racing incident after neither driver felt they could afford to concede the corner, though most do think Hamilton had significantly more blame.
MacLeod (@macleod)
24th July 2021, 13:48
If Max breaked first? that is no corner to break as it’s a high speed corner. Face it Max couldn’t get out at all without losing.
BasCB (@bascb)
24th July 2021, 16:11
You are right, he could have lifted, or gone wide etc @macleod
rodewulf (@rodewulf)
24th July 2021, 1:11
Not only his, it has been an ugly fight, finally reaching the spectacle some waited. But what would have happened if Lewis had recognised his role in the collision? Clearly both sides are wishful to detonate the fuse now.
Robbie (@robbie)
24th July 2021, 15:59
@paulguitar It is laughable to think CH and HM should apologize for anything. And you have inaccurately put a spin on this to suit your own point. He didn’t call LH amateur, but said it was an amateur move. He didn’t call LH desperate, but implied he was desperate to pass there for fear that that would be his last chance to get by Max. Your credibility can be questioned when you try to spin things as you have.
In terms of ‘interpretation of most former F1 drivers’ it is really about the interpretation of the stewards, for they are the ones charged as F1’s referees for these things, and they deemed LH predominantly at fault and penalized him. If they agreed with some, and wanted to put as much fault on Max as his non-fans do, or even some neutral F1 insiders, they would have called it a racing incident, but they didn’t. You can try to hang your hat on what woulda, coulda, shoulda been called by the stewards, but the fact remains they laid it on LH, not on a racing incident, and certainly not on Max.
paulguitar (@paulguitar)
24th July 2021, 16:13
Have you seen all of the interviews Horner did on Sunday @robbie? He said stuff even worse than what I quoted, including “He is having to go to the hospital for precautionary checks after a 51G accident. So I hope Lewis is very happy with himself,”
It’s disgraceful behaviour from Horner. Max deserves better than to be advised by Horner, Marco and Jos. I’ve read that Lewis called Max this week. I hope and believe that between the two of them they are a lot more mature than those around them who should know better.
Robbie (@robbie)
25th July 2021, 1:55
@paulguitar Yes I saw the post-race interview and CH was obviously quite shaken and was still quite in the heat of the moment and was also quite diplomatic. Aside from the quote you have provided he said of Lewis ‘a driver of that caliber…’ there was nothing disgraceful whatsoever about anything CH said and his emotions at the time were very understandable. I’m sure Max is utterly happy with the RBR family around him that has his back. I’m also sure that if the shoe was on the other foot and it was Max that took out LH and celebrated as he did, and it was all ‘job well done Max’ TW and LH fans would be singing a different tune.
paulguitar (@paulguitar)
25th July 2021, 2:29
@robbie
Horner was clearly overly emotional. I’m not sure which of the interviews you saw, but the one with Ted Kravitz was embarrassing. I felt that Ted really wanted to gently encourage Horner just to stop digging, but he was unable/unwilling to do so.
Max was winded, no injuries unless there is anything that has not been reported? Horner is carrying on as if Hamilton and Mercedes had been celebrating after something like the Niki Lauda accident. It’s unacceptable.
Robbie (@robbie)
25th July 2021, 3:49
@paulguitar No I really think you’re just not able to put yourself in his shoes, likely it seems to me from just not being a fan.
paulguitar (@paulguitar)
25th July 2021, 4:11
@robbie I appreciate how talented Max is. Horner, not so much!
DeanR (@deanr)
26th July 2021, 10:08
Ok, so the stewards deemed Lewis “predominantly” responsible for the incident. He got his penalty, he served his penalty and then won the race. Time to move on. Lewis has paid the price for what the stewards deemed to be his error. That’s the end of the matter. Except CH, HM, MV, JV, esploratore, erik, Robbie and the Netherlands just will not let this go. Error made, penalty served, LET IT GO!
erikje
26th July 2021, 14:11
You missed a lot I see.
Max already stated “moving on,” the day after his crash.
If only Lewis acknowledged his error it would have eased the situation.
He was in the wrong, penalised for it but still blames max. Just like you do.
So please move on indeed :)
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
23rd July 2021, 19:10
I don’t understand what they want when they say “a crash like this costs us X.xx million pounds”. Toto said the same after Imola when they blamed Russell.
Crashes are inherent to Motorsport. Be it a problem or a competitor running into you, blameless or not, of course it’s going to affect the budget.
Championship contention or not, it’s always a risk that something external could compromise your season. Just move on, man…
RandomMallard (@)
23rd July 2021, 19:35
@fer-no65 Yeah, and if RB didn’t factor in a damage budget into their budget cap planning then they are, quite frankly, stupid. You are never going to get through a whole season without a major incident, and they should hopefully be prepared for it when it eventually happens/happened.
jff
24th July 2021, 8:14
It’s this year’s budget and they are getting close to committing most of it.
You cannot reserve $1.8M until the penultimate race, or $3.6M for the race before that.
Or if you’re really prudent make that double as you race 2 cars.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
24th July 2021, 4:05
Shame for Red Bull, that the crash wasn’t in the sprint race, then they could have claimed some cash back!
jff
24th July 2021, 8:11
The irony is that it happened due to the Sprint (Max ahead) but 1lap late.
Had it happened in the Sprint, then they’d be awarded extra budget ;)
Horacio
24th July 2021, 16:41
That’s exactly what I thought went Toto came with his own account of Bottas-Russell crash, and now that Horner says the same.
What are you guys doing in car racing if you don´t want to face the possibility of a crash? It’s becoming ridiculous.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
28th July 2021, 11:35
@fer-no65 Now that such crash eats about 1-2 % of their total budget we could hear more of that unfortunately. And I wouldn’t even be surprised if they end up considering money losses as an aggravating factor at some point. But maybe they’ll just end up whining less, like smaller teams. Interesting to see though that big teams and smaller ones share more of the same problems now.
rodewulf (@rodewulf)
23rd July 2021, 19:12
Heavy damage to Max’s car now, spun off Albon twice when the guy finally was going for big points (something rare, actually). Yet the evidence on Max being a driver so aggressive recently is just a few clashes in which he might have fully gone to the uncompromising side of hard racing, borderline out of sportsmaship but still without causing a major incident and no penalty points. So I ask LH fans where are the rose-tinted glasses that they use to see that way about it: Max being way more dangerous on track than Lewis apparently, like if he was still as accident-prone as in the past. In Barcelona when he was attacking and he allegedly delivered a dive bomb putting Lewis with no choice but backing off. How does it compare to Silverstone start incident? Wasn’t there a situation in which both had reasonable claims over the ideal racing line as well or not? If Lewis had chosen to not back off at Barcelona and the pair collided, would Max have got a penalty like Lewis did last GP or not? If that’s not the case, then why is it that way? How much of a Mad Max he was that time, please elighten me. ;)
It happened on slow corners so not an extremely risky spot like Copse, even though clearly Max sent Lewis to the kerbs at Barcelona, but wouldn’t that be more comparable to Norris/Perez incident in the Austrian GP restart, if anything? If it was fully like that one, then he should have received a penalty, but I’ll rewatch this and other starts of the season’s races to be certain of the differences and similarities of those incidents.
Adeel
25th July 2021, 12:02
You want to be “enlighten” but fail to see what point everyone is trying to make. So, I’ll post here your own “Mr. Innocent” Max and “Mr. Its Fair Because My Driver Did It” Horner here trying to explain how its Stroll needs to give more space as Max had his wheel on the inside: https://youtu.be/naDVLIqLI_o?t=73
Its a racing incident if it was anyone else. Consider yourself enlightened.
rodewulf (@rodewulf)
29th July 2021, 4:19
Had Max managed to get more than half car alongside Stroll Jr. just before the corner? If yes, not the same situation. If no, then we’re talking about a possible incident and not quite a safe drive, potentially worth of a penalty as there could be someone with most of the blame, depending on how much the driver inside failed to avoid a dangerous track positioning going to the turn.
I’m sorry for disappointing you with that fanboy projection of yours, clearly coming from someone who is eager to see in others what he does the most, but I genuinely think that Max is in the wrong side if he had done the same thing that Lewis did last race. And I also don’t doubt that it might have happened in the past, we just need to see it case-by-case to prevent a confirmation bias skewing the analysis. It’s so easy to make any competitor look like he have only been robbed by the referee or something like that, then I’m just unimpressed by all those little fans making a full soap opera just because of a penalty issued after a collision caused by a driver.
David BR (@david-br)
23rd July 2021, 19:16
Maybe ask Verstappen, then, why he started to steer right, paused – undoubtedly the moment he realized exactly where Hamilton was – and then steered right again rather than doing what he could to avoid any contact. Sure, all very rapid, but that was a split-second decision to take the risk, undoubtedly. That’s why it was overwhelmingly viewed as either a ‘racing incident’ (view of many) or ‘Hamilton mostly at fault for miscalculating and understeering’ (view of many, perhaps most). Horner remains in the minority, unsurprising, but the idea that a hard racer like Max isn’t also an active element in this kind of incident is absurd. He pushed Hamilton as hard as he could over the opening lap, as he has done elsewhere, and by Horner’s own reckoning they would have collided previously had Hamilton not bailed out of a 50/50. In many people’s view, this incident was the culmination of this pattern with Lewis finally deciding to go for the pass. You reap what you sow. As for celebrating, Max was fine. Any complaints just sound sour and sore. As for the money, tough.