Red Bull team looking into challenging Hamilton's minor penalty

Red Bull team looking into challenging Hamilton's minor penalty
19 July 2021 by    3 min read
 79

Jul.19 - Red Bull is looking into whether to challenge the decision that enabled Lewis Hamilton to win the British GP after his collision with championship rival Max Verstappen on Sunday.

After checking out of hospital dizzy, bruised and battered but otherwise unhurt following his 51G crash, the Red Bull driver slammed Hamilton for wildly celebrating his home win.

Verstappen said he watched Hamilton's raucous celebrations on TV from hospital, which he described as "disrespectful and unsportsmanlike".

His girlfriend, Kelly Piquet, called it "disgraceful".

However, Hamilton reacted by calling Verstappen "very aggressive", adding that he went on to win after taking the resulting 10-second penalty "on the chin".

"I was like 'I'm not going to let anything get in the way of the crowd's enjoyment of the weekend and the national anthem and the British flag," he said.

But the bigger implications for the 2021 title battle, according to Verstappen, is that Hamilton's arguably-minor penalty "does not help us and doesn't do justice to the dangerous move Lewis made on track".

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said he expected that Red Bull would be looking into challenging the penalty.

"They will explore everything that is available to them," he said.

"We'll see what comes out of it, but I think it's clear when you open the rulebook."

Dr Helmut Marko thinks a race suspension is appropriate for Hamilton.

"If the competitor hits out rear wheel heavily with his front wheel, this is no longer a racing accident but negligent and dangerous behaviour," said the Red Bull official.

"So it is no longer a normal sporting penalty that applies here - you have to judge it differently. I don't know if it was a miscalculation from Hamilton but in the sporting rules there are only certain penalties that are not appropriate for this."

Max's father Jos said: "You can't do what Hamilton did, in that place. I think a 10-second penalty is really ridiculous. It was also dangerous for the public.

"As far as I'm concerned, they could have disqualified him for a race," he told Ziggo Sport.

Verstappen snr said 23-year-old Max "feels good" physically, but doctors "wanted to take a look at his brain with a scan" after he reported feeling dizzy.

"He also has a little pain in his shoulder, which is quite blue," Jos added. "He has bruises all over his body but otherwise he is fine."

As for whether Red Bull really will look into whether it can challenge the FIA's controversial penalty, team boss Christian Horner said: "We have some rights available to us, but unfortunately I think the stewards were pretty firm in their decision.

"I think it's pointless ultimately but we will discuss it and look into it. What I will say is that it's not a penalty if you win the race."

However, F1 race director Michael Masi said he backs the stewards' decision on the basis that the "consequences of the incident itself" are not taken into consideration.

"In this case, the stewards decided that Lewis bears the majority of the blame, but he wasn't solely responsible," he revealed.

Horner obviously disagrees.

"We are currently clarifying which options the rules provide for and looking at the evidence again," said the Red Bull boss.

"For us, the matter is very, very clear."

Indeed, Horner said Hamilton wildly celebrated what he thinks was a "hollow victory" - but his counterpart Wolff says the crash was just "part of racing".

"An accident like that always looks ugly," Wolff told ORF. "But Lewis was past the middle of the car so the corner was his. That's just the rule which you can read.

"There are even drawings," the Mercedes boss added.

"According to the rulebook, no punishment would have been justified. That may annoy some people, but it's just the way it is."

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79 F1 Fan comments on “Red Bull team looking into challenging Hamilton's minor penalty”

  1. Linda

    Watch your drivers hands Horner & watch LHs hands. LH didn't turn into MV but MV kept turning into LH. There's a reason MV was called Max Vercrashem. Look how thuggish MV has been to LH, squeezing him off track. LH just decided he wasn't going to back down again. Karun Chandrok did a good analysis of the accident, from every angle. He & Damon spoke the most sense of the day. As for JB stating that the reason CL went wide because he was worried LH was going to do the same to him, beggars belief. Pfffft! Racing Incident, helped by Max imho

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    • tarbh rua

      lydia,are you that stupid.it was a right hand corner.to go around the corner you turn to the right.simples.to run into your opponent on a right hander you leave your car drift left by not steering to the right or speeding up.simples.max didnt want to go into the barriers or the gravel so he steered to the right to stay on the track.got it

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      • Linda

        My name is Linda & No, I'm not stupid. MV wasn't turning right for the corner, he was turning right to try & force LH to back out. For once, LH didn't. Twice this year MV has muscled his way through & forced LH off the track. They both took a gamble that the other one would back out. Neither did. Racing incident. Max was ok enough to use social media & talks of needing a brain scan. Shortly before & then after I'd had brain surgery, there's no way I could have taken to social media

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        • Ianferguson2808@ g mail.com

          Linda your spot on redbull boss and fans are happy when he puts drivers of the race track but just see how they react when it happens to him hope more drivers do it from now on see how the spoiled best reacts to them

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      • JJ75

        Linda...do u drive?? He was steering the car..I've read ur posts before, ur a Hamilton fan..enuf said..
        But I will say in maxs' defence, I've never seen the gaudy display of unsportsmanship that Hamilton displayed, while his colleague was getting a ct scan in the hospital..running thru the fields like little house on the praire..I nearly fell off the chair laughing at him..he's lost the plot..he's been making schoolboy errors all season and I think he made a huge one Sunday, he needs some time off for his mental health, cos he looked like a clown, celebrating when someone could have had serious long term side effects from a crash he was involved in..not the time..LINDA..

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        • shroppyfly

          Hamilton is, lets be kind and say unique, his celebrations were not dare i say it typically British, of course the crowd lapped it up, but he , and this in no way meant to offend any American posters looked very American, which is fine, just not in the uk, i have to say ive slated him more than most since my time on here, but only because of his demina/dress sence/common sense lol etc , im just glad he didnt crowd surf again but even i thought mmmm he did look a bit of a pratt doing it as he did , but Not long now and we will see how Max responds .Jax come out of hiding and defend your man .

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        • Josie

          Do you drive??? Of course LH was steering the car to get round the corner!! Do you know the FIA rules? LH’s car was half way along side MV’s going into Copse and he was on the inside, the corner was his to continue going round! So are you saying that all of the spectators at the GP were being gaudy!!!! I think not!!! The first thing LH asked was “Is Max OK”

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          • JJ75

            Amm..I'm replying to Linda's post..nothing for u to get involved in..move on bud..create the Hamilton narrative to suit ur own story..get Toto to draw u a diagram aswell while ur at it..its blatant unstportsman type behaviour to celebrate, while the man u tangled with is still in hospital..he got rammed into a wall..its called decorum..and being humble..not the time for prancing thru fields with the union jack like a mad man..

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          • JJ75

            And I do drive..go me..and I've seen 5 second penalties for less. I love seeing the guys being allowed to race, but if I feel if this was a rookie we'd be seeing a ban..and if this was verstappen, Lewis fans and Toto would be calling for his head..

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          • JJ75

            Notice u didn't really didn't respond to my points just the Bud part, interesting that's the part that irked you.. anyhow tally ho..drive on..pardon the pun..
            Have a really good evening..yawn..

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          • tarbh rua

            JJ YOU SUMMED THAT UP PRETTY WELL.he never misses a chance to prance about with the butchers apron.you make no friends waving that rag about.

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  2. Rick

    hamilton knew if max got away on the 1st lap he had no chance of catching him or winning (see Saturday sprint race) so he deliberately took max out a great strategy to win the race hamilton knew exactly what he was doing & should have been disqualified for such a dangerous move on such a high-speed part of the track

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    • Josie

      Deliberately took Max out! What are you talking about! Lewis DID NOT deliberately take Max out! It takes two to tango, you are making this a one driver fault. Max was pretty aggressive leading up to when the accident happened, this was definitely 50/50 as neither driver wanted to give in! I bet Christian Horner would say that it was just a racing incident if it had been the other way around!

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    • IAN FERGUSON

      bull shit MV has been called agresive by many drivers and some say he is a danger when overtaking but all this is about is the points red bull lost if this had been the other way round everyone knows Horner would have called it a fair race and defended MV to the hilt used to think Horner was a fair and honest man but he is just another hypocrite

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  3. David Gladwin

    Had Hamilton been a new driver there would have been some excuse, but after all his driving he knew exactly where he was in relation to Verstappen. The result may well be that Verstappen will not mentally want to compete with Hamilton, after a crunch like that you never quite get over it. [You don't flying aircraft I can assure you]. Of course, Mercedes would not have influenced the stewards would they...........

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    • IAN FERGUSON

      so MV can be as agresive as he wants but nobody can play the same game watch the vid MV turned aggresivly into LH hope he learned his leason and stops beein so agresive

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  4. Paul Anderson

    don't believe there was any intention to take Max out... Max has always been a missle looking for a target with late passes and bumping others off the track: just watch Karums replays of this weekends passes by Max and of prior years... rough racing to push through will only work when the other driver backs off - just as D Hill expalined and LH and VB have always backed off.. until now.. this type of driving reminds me of Senna v Mansell.. J Vill v M Schumi, D hill v M Schumi and even Gille V v Peroni... wheel to wheel racing doesn't have to end in tears but you have to give room for the fight.. also see the pass this year at spa .. side by side in aux rouge ... one thing i dont like is Red Bull hypocracy..its acceptable for Max to dive ans bump, but not others???

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    • Josie

      Totally agree, Lewis definitely did not have any intention to take Max out.... I believe it was 50/50 as neither driver would back down! It was not one drivers fault, it takes two to tango! If the boot was on the other foot Christian Horner would say it was a racing incident! No one wants to see any driver get hurt and glad Max is OK!

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  5. Paul Anderson

    watch the hypocrisy.. Max has always been a missile looking for a target with late passes and bumping others of the track... just watch replays of this weekends passes and of prior years by Karun... rough racing to push through will only work when the other driver backs off - just as D Hill explained and LH and VB have always backed out.. Until now... this type of racing reminds me of Senna / Mansell... J Vill / M Schumi... D Hill/ M Schumi and even Gille V / Peroni.. Hard wheel to wheel racing will result in tears for one or both if there is no respect... But not always... see Spa this year with Gasly and Perez ... but watch the Red Bull hypocrisy.... it’s acceptable for Max to dive asn bump but not others???

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  6. José Herrero

    As far as I can see, after looking at multiple videos of the accident, Hamilton forced his competition, Versttapen & Red Bull out of the race with all the intention; putting Versttapen's life in great danger. This guy should be taught in a hard way not to be a bully, he thinks is the king, when he is just an unconsidered driver. The penalty he should receive is, been suspended for one race or loosing the points won at the British GP.

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  7. MichaelM

    This incident should not be called an accident, it was 110% intentional. LH hit Max's rear wheel which clearly means that Max was ahead of him going into the bend The 10sec penalty is utterly disgraceful and must be overturned with a disqualification. The penalty has set a precedent for drivers to behave recklessly towards other drivers knowing that there is everything to gain and nothing to lose.

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  8. José Herrero

    I think that because my name is José and no Joe, I shouldn't bee discriminated. I posted my comment at 1.44 July 20 and now isn't there. My comment was very much in line with the one from MichaelM. But mine has been removed. Can you tell me the reason for it, other than because my name is Español???
    I live in Canada and my proficiency in English is as good as any one of you. I will like to know your proficiency in Spanish or even French.
    I think you are discriminating here, to comments made by any one who doesn't have an English name.

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    • Leopold Post author

      Hi José, welcome to our platform and thank you for your message. Because you are a new comment poster, we had to approve your first comments by hand. We don't discriminate people, please don't think we are that pathetic. This is an open platform where all F1 fans can give their view at least if they follow our commenting guidelines. Sometime we do have to delete comments that do not comply our guidelines. Some keyboard warriors just go to far and take them self to serious.

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  9. shroppyfly

    Minor penalty , well in terms of time lost /race result yes but he did get 2 points on his licence,, how many is that now 8 ?.. Max as ive said i think has none this yr, will having 8 points make Sir Lewis Hamilton think twice about his challenges this yr who knows..??

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  10. shroppyfly

    His girlfriend, Kelly Piquet, called it "disgraceful". No Kelly,
    Thats will have been what your bro did a few yrs ago, we never forget , i had money on him that race lol

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  11. IAN FERGUSON

    so MV can be as agresive as he wants but nobody can play the same game watch the vid MV turned aggresivly into LH hope he learned his leason and stops beein so agresive

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    • JJ75

      Hi Ian, I for one am not getting into an argument about not letting racers race. My argument is, this is the 3rd time Hamilton has performed a similar move, twice before involving Albon. Verstappen is renowned for his aggressive driving style, and usually its to his own detriment..however a seasoned racer like Hamilton knew the outcome of that manoeuvre Sunday, he knew he had to pass on the first lap and he was unnecessarily aggressive..perez got hefty 5 second penalties as did norris a couple of weeks earlier for far less..the damage the car and driver endured, warranted more than the slap on the wrist that Lewis got..if I was Lando I'd be seething at the injustice..and if I was max I'd struggle to look at Lewis the self proclaimed, humble good guy of f1 who celebrated his win in the most overboard fashion while his colleague was still getting checked out...that's all..just sometimes the Hamilton fans can be unrelenting, and defensive..but u know its OK to take a day off, we race again!! Stay safe..

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    • Guttersniper

      It's said there's no such thing as bad publicity but
      Hama's isn't getting much favourable comments here except the odd do gooder who thinks he's a great guy

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        • JJ75

          And just for another spanner in the works, Lewis car was repaired while the session was red flagged..which was another advantage for him!! Surely this needs to be reassessed?? If u cause a collision (which stewards were investigating) either work isn't allowed, and it's a dnf, or work goes ahead and u start from the back of the grid?? It would have been a totally different outcome coupled with the 10 second stop..and Christian and Toto wouldn't have to be drawing pictures and ringing lawyers??

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