Nothing personal in Hamilton-Verstappen rivalry – Bottas

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In the round-up: Valtteri Bottas sees no cause for concern in the rivalry between championship contenders Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.

In brief

“They’re both adults” – Bottas

Hamilton and Verstappen have clashed on-track twice already this year. However Bottas says that despite what either might say in the heat of the moment, there was no bitter rivalry between them.

“If I look at Turkey, I saw them having a chat and felt like everything is normal,” the Mercedes driver said about his team mate and Verstappen. “It is competition and when you’re competing hard on track, you’re not trying to make friends.

“But Lewis and Max, they’re both adults so they also know that that is the name of the game. And I don’t think it’s anything personal. That’s my view.

“If you’re on the podium after a race that you’ve been wheel-to-wheel with someone, you still have adrenaline and you might feel tension, but that’s completely normal in the sport. So for me, it’s all normal.”

Formula 2 and 3 revise points system for 2022

Formula 2 and 3 have revised their points allocations for 2022, reducing the value of their sprint races. The feature race in both series will continue to award points in the same way as an F1 grand prix – with 25 for the winner and so on.

From next year both series will award 10 points to the winner of the sprint race. F1 will award to top eight finishers with 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 points respectively. Formula 3, which has a larger field of drivers, will award points to the top 10: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 points respectively.

The number of points awarded for taking pole position and setting fastest lap will be halved. Pole will be worth two points, fastest lap one.

Both series have previously announced they will cut the number of races per weekend from three to two next year, removing one sprint race.

Norris hopes he can inspire more girls into motorsport

Lando Norris says he hopes his popularity with female motorsport fans encourages more women to get involved in motorsport. The McLaren driver was named F1’s most popular competitor among females yesterday.

“I think it’s a good thing that I can influence them and have an effect on them in a way – girls and not just guys – because a lot of people see racing as something that guys are into more than anything,” said Norris. “But the fact that I can put on a good show and maybe bring that audience into Formula 1 a little bit more, I think is a cool thing and we can have, then, more women drivers coming through, if that’s something I’m able to kind of push towards.

“So I guess it’s a cool stat, it doesn’t change anything, but if I can influence them and that attracts maybe more women drivers coming into racing and Formula 1 then that’s a cool thing.”

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Comment of the day

Max Verstappen‘s declaration that he won’t play ball with Drive to Survive has struck a chord with David Hunter, who says producers should listen to someone who should be one of the show’s biggest stars.

I don’t blame him, and I really like what Drive to Survive generally does. However it does overstep the mark and needlessly so as well. I hope maybe his comments (from potentially this season’s champion) cause them to stick closer to the actual facts and less of the manipulative editing.

There’s really little need for it, the sport has great personalities and actual rivalries (and friendly ones) that would be great to watch as is.
@Davidhunter13

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On this day in motorsport

Contact with Fisichella left Schumacher with a puncture which ended his title hopes today in 2006

Author information

Hazel Southwell
Hazel is a motorsport and automotive journalist with a particular interest in hybrid systems, electrification, batteries and new fuel technologies....

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14 comments on “Nothing personal in Hamilton-Verstappen rivalry – Bottas”

  1. COTD: I hope that Season 4 of Driver to Survive has less created entertainment, and I also hope that this championship is not scripted in a way that it is this close at the moment, nor does it have any involvement with the series. I absolutely loathe scripted outcomes in sports. The series is good if it gives us some of interesting events happening behind doors, like the meeting Steiner had with German sponsors, or the discussions in the briefing with Mercedes after the 2019 German GP, or even the PR meeting in Ferrari just before the 2020 Tuscan GP. The series needs to set a balance between entertainment and facts.

    1. @krichelle I doubt it will happen. Netflix isn’t the one that can be connected with the word fact. Drive to survive sounds more like some B-class horror movie title than a season review. Well from the S1E1 it was meant to be more like a show than a document. They should do both of them but I think netflix wouldn’t be happy if someone else would come to the pits with them to do a DVD season review.

      1. @qeki DTS was never intended as a season review.

  2. So because Norris is popular with the women, that’s supposed to mean they now want to be F1 drivers? Who comes up with this stuff?

    Did for example Justin Bieber’s popularity with women make them want to take up singing? Come on..

    This PC fakery stuff is so grating.

    1. @balue let’s hope he doesn’t decide to grow a beard.

    2. @balue I would imagine that if more women get into F1 more of them will want to be F1 drivers, yes. Most fans have that fantasy at some point or other. Not really sure what’s supposed to be offensively politically correct about that.

      1. If only “getting into F1” was that easy.

  3. Certainly nothing personal, but weird to read these words from Bottas rather than either relevant individual.

    Same view as COTD.

    1. If there really was any tension off track, you can be assured his teammate would know.

  4. Similar to the CotD I feel that the round-up often ‘oversteps the mark’ of being a round-up of what other media reported over the past 24 hours.
    The lead article is a non-story, which most glossy magazines wouldn’t even run.

    There is nothing wrong if leading with ‘links’ to to competing websites. Actually, by doing so you make racefans.net the go-to site for most; we know we won’t miss anything.

    I wish RF would ‘stick closer to the actual facts and less of the manipulative editing’.

  5. Americans need an American team to flourish in F1? Yeah good job there were Brazilian teams or Senna, Piquet, Fittipaldi would never have won 8 titles between themselves. Good that Finland had F1 teams as well so Raikkonen, K. Rosberg & Hakkinen could flourish. What American teams were there for Mario Andretti & Phil Hill to win titles with?

  6. It would seem the 2021 season needs little manipulation to create an exciting script as is, so I agree with COTD.

  7. Yeah, there’s nothing personal in the Hamilton-Verstappen rivalry because both Silverstone and Monza were Racing Incidents. Good thing I stood up and said it along Sonny and every other one who still thinks to this day that they are both RACING INCIDENTS by 100%.

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