Hamilton told Leclerc ‘I didn’t want to clip you and send you off’ after Copse scrap

2022 F1 season

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Lewis Hamilton told Charles Leclerc he was anxious to avoid hitting the Ferrari driver when they went wheel-to-wheel through Copse as they battled in the late stages of the British Grand Prix.

The two drivers fought over third place at the end of the race in an enthralling, multi-lap battle. At one point Leclerc overtook Hamilton around the outside of the high-speed Copse corner.

The move drew comparisons with the battle between Hamilton and his championship rival Max Verstappen on the opening lap of last year’s British Grand Prix. The pair collided, pitching the Red Bull into the wall at high speed. Hamilton was held chiefly responsible by the stewards and handed a 10-second time penalty, despite which he went on to win the race.

In a new edition of Ferrari’s behind-the-scenes YouTube series Full Access, Leclerc is shown talking with Hamilton ahead of last week’s Austrian Grand Prix in the Red Bull Ring media pen.

In the recently published footage, Hamilton can be heard discussing the pair’s battle for third on lap 48 of the British Grand Prix, in which the Mercedes tried to pass the Ferrari around the outside of Brooklands before completing the move around the outside of Luffield one corner later. Leclerc then bravely reclaimed the position by passing Hamilton around the outside of Copse, turning into the fast right hander at around 300 km/h.

“I was like, ‘fuck, I don’t want to just clip you and send you off,'” Hamilton can be heard telling Leclerc in the six-second clip.

Speaking after the British Grand Prix, Hamilton praised Leclerc’s racecraft throughout the battle, highlighting how he believed the fight differed from his one with Verstappen a year earlier.

“Charles did a great job, a great battle,” Hamilton told Sky after the race. “He’s such a sensible driver, definitely different to what I experienced last year. Copse, for example – we got through there no problem.”

Leclerc also admitted after the British Grand Prix that the 2021 incident had been on his mind after he had completed the pass on Hamilton at Copse. “It was incredibly tricky and, actually, as soon as I passed the corner I look in my mirror and I had a flashback of last year,” said the Ferrari driver.

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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126 comments on “Hamilton told Leclerc ‘I didn’t want to clip you and send you off’ after Copse scrap”

  1. Well, did Lewis learn or is that still a choice he’s making depending on who it is he’s fighting?

    1. It’s Charles not having the same ham fisted bravado mentality as our current number 1*.

    2. Hamilton didn’t need to learn anything. Just look at how he overtook Leclerc, or anyone else for that matter, in the very same 2021 English Grand Prix.

      1. Yes, by holding a tighter line and hitting the apex. I mean, it’s black and white with video evidence.

        1. Man give it up already. They touched before the apex so it’ not black and white at all. Plus why is it that the inside car has to snort the apex for it to be classed as cars width but the outside car access to like 99% of the rest of the tarmac at the corner.

          Plus Hamilton won the race and Verstappen won the championship. Get over it, it was 2021 and it’s over. Welcome to 2022.

          1. It’s hard not to bite when people can’t see what’s in front of them. Max and Charles left the same room on the inside yet one is a clean racer and the other is crazy/dirty. It’s absurd.
            It also depends on who is ahead in the corner, not just inside or outside.

          2. Hey G, I completely agree. Max found it really hard not to bite when Hamilton was in front at the apex. Well said

          3. It couldn’t be more clear. There are pictures out there comparing car positioning Lewis vs Max and Lewis vs Leclerc in Copse. There is no denying whatsoever possible that Max left more room than Charles did, yet Lewis’ car is on the apex with Leclerc and nowhere near the apex with Max. It’s factual footage.

          4. @Mayrton if you want to believe it was Hamilton fault then fine. Still doesn’t change the fact that the collision occured before the apex so you can’t compare the two lines at the apex as much as people seem to think that they can.

        2. Bruno Verrari
          14th July 2022, 20:51

          Totally clear!

        3. @G +1

      2. British Grand Prix. Not English.

    3. Probably the 2022 car did not help either in repeating the 2021 highlight of the race.

    4. the difference is the racecraft of LEC vs the overaggressive VER

      1. What does it matter how aggressive Verstappen is on average, when he wasn’t at fault for that incident? And the other way round when Verstappen made a wrong move. Formula 1 is much more fun for/with at least somewhat neutral people, you fans of either Verstappen or Hamilton (and whoever comes next) don’t care at all for any objectivity or even respect for one another. It all reminds me of how kids argue at school.

        1. VER was found to be partly at fault

      2. the difference is he didnt miss the apex by a mile this time

        1. the only one who misses apex by a mile is VER (brazil)

          1. But he didn’t send Lewis into the barriers…

          2. cause Lewis decided not to crash, unlike VER

        2. @NM “the difference is he didnt miss the apex by a mile this time”

          what do you know about apex that you comment about it? there is no defined apex in a corner? you can have an early or late apex or mid apex all depends on the racing line you take! it is a point of view not a hard static point on a corner! everyone around except max knows this! max has been bully so many times, it was a time to make a statement to show him what happens when people dont yield to his bullying. i hated the race director and stewards for allowing this behavior such a long time so often
          that made max thought whatever he does will go unpunished so he forced the limits of what is actually complete and utter rubbish racing. he was moving under braking so many times, he was forcing people off left and right front and back… dive bombing, running silly wide, and finally wasnt afraid to take himself and if possible other person out of the race too! he shown and demonstrated this so blatantly so many times, you have to be actually blind or hooligan level fan to ignore them all!

    5. I agree it means lewis knew exactly what he was doing last year

      1. Exactly. Lewis just confessed his collision last year was intentional ….

    6. Bruno Verrari
      14th July 2022, 20:49

      Shocking…but he’s finally learned the apex lesson! Nico would benefit from that, too!
      Would he also have crashed into Charles, he would have lost whatever little respect we still have left towards his double-edged driving standards…

      1. Not just Nico. What about the poor Albon who was victimised twice and almost cost him his career.

    7. Verstappen gave Hamilton no choice but to show the little upstart two things, 1. If you’re going to intentionally push a driver out the way like Verstappen has been doing all hi career, how to do it with sheer skill and more subtle. 2. Verstappen needed putting into a wall to give him a clear message drivers won’t fall for the bully tactics.

      Verstappen is without doubt, one of the lousiest sportsman in the history of F1.

      1. I feel you rather just made a statement indicating Lewis is, if that was indeed his train of thought….

    8. Of course it is the latter. He is so full of …

  2. Last year Hamilton was not prepared to yield a mm to Max, he would rather have crashed. Hamilton new exactly what he was doing 2021 – he needed to lay a marker down. He took Max out to set the tone for the rest of the season, it went exactly to plan.

    1. Exactly right – in response to Max’s dirty driving on 3 separate occasions earlier in the season.

    2. Check Imola and Spain to see precedents being set before Silverstone.

      1. In both Imola and Spain Max had the inside line and was ahead. He had every right to squeeze Lewis out. Lewis has done this countless times to other drivers and had every right to as well. If you have ever raced you will know that being behind and on the outside of a corner is a bad place to be. Copse was different as Max was ahead whilst on the outside and could carry greater speed. I think Lewis was just desperate at this point and is now making ill-judged comments to try and justify the collision a year later.
        He tried to carry too much speed into the corner last year which is why he missed the apex completely and hit the RedBull. You can see against Charles that he held a tighter line and scrubbed off a lot more speed.

        1. “In both Imola and Spain Max had the inside line and was ahead.”

          Correct, and in both instances Hamilton backed out and lived to fight another day, in the case of Spain, he went on to win that race where Horner said he would have ended up in the barriers had he not backed out of the move. Verstappen hadn’t learned this lesson, in Silverstone his lack of forward thinking put him out of the race.

          1. He shouldn’t have to back out at Silverstone because he was literally ahead, the trailing car is the one that backs out when they can’t safely retake position at the corner. What is so hard for people to understand about that?

          2. @N
            He had to back out in Imola and Spain as he had lost position in the corner, same as Copse.

      2. If that was Lewis’ motivation than he is even less knowledgable and skilled than I thought. Silverstone was a classic lay down the line red mist moment in combination with rusty skill set as a result from always leading from the front. He did not get much wheel to wheel training with his rocket Mercedes for over a decade. I an way you can’t really blame the man.

    3. Exactly, as Jan Lammers noted last season; the drivers were no longer rationally battling for position, but purely focused on outdoing each other. It was quite silly, as both drivers have shown plenty of times before and since that they’re perfectly capable of having proper on track battles. That’s why it was disappointing the stewards didn’t intervene more strongly, especially after Silverstone, because it was obvious what was up between these two.

      1. And for broader context, the thing about last season, is that these two guys were up front and at each other’s throats every single time. I wasn’t like either of them had a bad weekend or whatever. It was just them going to toe to toe every week just getting everty tenth out of two different cars. Bottas and Perez may as well have been driving another car, they were just way in the background. When people are less het up about their guy wining or losing, 2021 is going to be considered maybe the best F1 season since the 70s.

        1. Yes, there was really a lot of racing between cars that across the season were very close in performance (which also happened in 2018) but unlike 2018 there were 2 drivers constantly on top, except hamilton who had a few off races early on, such as monaco, but he was a threat till the end, vettel as soon as he spun at monza was pretty obvious he was no longer a threat, because he lost more points through mistakes than the 7 points gained the times he managed to win.

    4. This means he did crash on purpose …. that is what everyone thought Lewis just confirmed it!

      1. Max crashed on purpose?

  3. Hamilton is still trying to write his own story and is cynically using Leclerc to do so. He cannot admit that it was his mistake.

    I remind you that Hamilton was found guilty of the whole incident by the judges. He was given a penalty and rejoiced after winning the British GP when Max was in hospital – such a small comment on Hamilton’s recent words about rejoicing when your rival could have ended up in hospital. Hypocrite.

    Just as Max said (which, for the rest, can be seen in the pictures comparing the two manoeuvres): Lewis learned how to hit apex at 37 – apparently, since he still can’t admit he was wrong..

    1. May I remind you “predominantly” at fault, not “guilty of the whole incident”. Sheesh!

      1. 99% Vs 1% or 51% Vs 49% would both be summarised as “Predominantly to blame”. And in last years crash Lewis wasn’t just 51% but more like 80% or higher to blame for the accident.

        1. more like 60/40 at best

          1. Fred Fedurch
            14th July 2022, 23:05

            90/20

      2. Predominantly at fault because he attempted the the pass. Verstappen was partiallly at fault because he refused to conceed and also changed his line mid corner.

      3. Bruno Verrari
        14th July 2022, 20:58

        But still: (insufficiently) punished by the stewards. Exclusively.!

        1. 10s penalty for a contact which can easily also be ruled being a racing incident is pretty harsh. many experienced drivers stated it was a racing incident in their opinion. ofc things look different through orange glasses.

          1. Aren’t some of those drivers who stated that british, such as hill if I recall?

          2. Hence I think talking about orange glasses when it could be the opposite here seems far fetched.

          3. Alonso, Ricciardo… I dont remember who, but there were some more.

      4. yeah it was more like 50.1% vs 49.9%

    2. @chase423

      As you presumably know, Verstappen was entirely uninjured and simply had some routine checks. Hamilton was not ‘found guilty of the whole incident by the judges’. Some of the blame was placed on Verstappen.

      And Verstappen’s comment about ‘learning to hit an apex at 37’ was extremely disrespectful, as well as demonstrably inaccurate and deliberately incendiary. Not particularly surprising from him though.

      1. Lewis reopened that narrative before max responded. So Lewis needs to grow up too. Lewis missed the apex at that corner, max was in front and he didn’t. Lewis got away with that but karma came back to bite him….and now Max is world champ.

        1. “Lewis missed the apex at that corner” what exactly is a apex and where is it? i dont remember seeing a rule that says drivers had to hit a point called/marked apex before! it is a point of view for the racing line you choose! sometimes it is earl in the corner, sometimes late, sometimes it is mid corner, not a static point! the actual point is max hooligans think everyone has to yield for max, whether he is ahead (and other driver has to give up) or behind (other driver has to give up for max’s diving range/circle)
          so it really doesnt matter which apex you talk about, max has to be ahead out of a corner no matter what!

      2. Max commented perfectly adequate on Lewis’s nasty jab below the waist.

    3. He was not wrong. Max took himself out with his overaggressive driving.

      1. Wrong as Max used exactly the same line as LeClerc did through Copse.

          1. Yep.
            https://youtu.be/xGgpdb2WhRE

            It’s clear from the onboards too that the only variable between the two passes at Copse is Hamilton’s line.
            I’m surprised Lewis made his comments without looking at the facts first.

          2. and then you post a video where even at the beginning one can see, that VER squeezed HAM to the very inside already on the straight, resulting into very different lines already into the corner. orange glasses dont help you judgement it seems

          3. I don’t get your point? What wasn’t fair about that? One defensive move and more than a cars width left on the inside.
            After that, when they set themselves for the corner you can see Max’ line is identical to Charles. Lewis’ is different by a full car width. Do you not agree?

          4. also more than a cars width on the outside. HAM was alongside on the straight, VER braked later, took more speed into the corner and ignored the car next to him. Thats his yield or crash mentality, for which he paid with his crash.

          5. Romtrain is just confirming the move Hamilton tried to make was even more stupid if his starting position before the corner was already compromised. Lets not beat around the bush anymore: Lewis was desperate. It happens, I expect it since he is supposed to be passionate. But not being able to admit it afterwards makes him a laughable and terrible character and poor sportsman that no longer deserves my support (as I have always given him right up until that point)

          6. Maryton, you dont respect facts. The crashkid squeezed HAM on the straight, and then took too much speed into the corner. Its his own overaggressive driving, which produced his crash. But through your orange glasses you obviously are blinded.

          7. In guess getting personal rubs of from Lewis to his fans… people running out of arguments often use that approach, just as Lewis and the Mercedes PR group attempted last year. It is an display of insecurity. On the matter: There is plenty of footage out there that blatantly clear proves Lewis made a mistake. It happens. Its no biggy. Not owning up to it and getting the mind games in that caused Alonso to dislike Lewis and Nico to leave, that’s a biggy. A big one.

    4. @romtrain, @paulguitar: I feel your pain. It is a pity that you simply cannot admit that it was Hamilton’s fault. You will defend him that he is not entirely to blame, blah blah blah, there was a bad phase of the moon at that moment and the groundwater was at too high a level. You will do anything to defend him in a binary situation.

      And Verstappen’s comment about ‘learning to hit an apex at 37’ was extremely disrespectful, as well as demonstrably inaccurate and deliberately incendiary. Not particularly surprising from him though.

      He matched the level of Lewis’ pathetic comments accusing Max of being disrespectful, so let’s go further:

      LH about CL: “He’s such a sensible driver, definitely different to what I experienced last year. Copse, for example – we got through there no problem.”

      So actually, I don’t know what the statement is about. Since he didn’t hit him like last year, they got through with no problem. Charles left him less space than Max did. The only thing he experienced was a lack of impact, by riding the right line in this situation.

      1. @chase423

        You’re quite simply incorrect. Verstappen was found partly to blame by the stewards. You demonstrate your lack of understanding by claiming it was a ‘binary situation’. It wasn’t.

        What’s more, plenty of successful overtakes have happened at Copse over the years when Verstappen was not involved.

        1. What’s more – over the years Hamilton hasn’t driven into anyone at Copse, so these manoeuvres were successful.

          1. Plenty of drivers have made successful moves through there, I have seen some of them myself at Copse at various race weekends. It requires cooperation from the drivers as is so often the case. LeClerc (and others) know how to do it.

            I suppose Lewis and Max were always going to have this kind of coming together at some point. Given several of Verstappen’s clumsy moves it actually somewhat surprising that it took as long as it did.

          2. ” Given several of Verstappen’s clumsy moves it actually somewhat surprising that it took as long as it did.”

            And in the end it all came out of a clumsy move by Hamilton. Get in there Lewis!

          3. Verstappen could have given Hamilton racing room, and then used his car advantage to overtake later in the lap, and gone on to win the race. Then he wouldn’t have needed Michael Masi to have gifted him the title in AD with his ‘human error’…

          4. it was clumsy to cut the corner like VER did, especially when he will be worse off in case they touch. at least we agree it was clumsy…

        2. You just made the case for an intentional faul by Hamilton. Many overtakes even with Hamilton involved, just when Max was involved and he and Lewis where fighting for the championship did it go wrong……… Because Hamilton decided to take Max out (!?)

          1. Not at all woody.

            What is shown is that other drivers have been able to go toe to toe through that corner and give racing room. There are literally dozens of examples of it through the years in that corner.

          2. And there are numerous examples of VER dive bombing and driving HAM off the track. But HAM is often smart enough, not to crash into him, in those situations. While the crashkid seems to nevef learn.

          3. @paulguitar
            I think the issue here is that there is one driver giving different amounts of room from one year to the next.

          4. G

            There is a lot going on. In 2021, of course, it was right at the start of the race, cars were very heavy with fuel, and the tyres were not fully up to temp. The simple answer is that neither was fully to blame.

          5. @paulguitar
            I get that, but it’s up to the drivers to make corrections for all this and not understeer or carry too much speed into other drivers.

          6. Fair enough. I agree with the stewards really that it is both who were to blame. Racing incident, Lewis a tad optimistic, Max could have given more room and overtaken Lewis later in the lap, possibly as soon as the run down the Hanger straight and into Stowe.

          7. @paulguitar
            Only it wasn’t a racing incident. Lewis got a penalty. Max didn’t.

          8. Lewis was judged to have been ‘predominantly’ to blame by the stewards. This means they considered Max to have been partly to blame. (As did most pundits/ex drivers etc).

          9. I feel some here would do well in going back to basic racing school. There is basics stuff that is not understood hence leading to debate. Calling something a dive bomb does not necessarily meam it is not a correct racing move. You cant just label anything that beat Lewis a diving bomb. It is racing. Not the processional stuff from the last decade in which no one could challenge Lewis. We should embrace the fact there is actual racing once again after a horrific dominant era

    5. It was not a mistake. Lewis just confessed his collision last year was intentional ….

  4. @chase423 Well exactly. The thing is, I wonder if CL’s flashback was toward last year’s MV/LH incident at Copse, or was his flashback about when he himself went outside LH at Copse last year. The video overlay shows that last year at Copse CL was in about the same spot on the outside of LH as LH’s line was when he was on the inside of Max. Somehow with CL LH managed to keep at the apex and stay inside CL without incident. Max had left way way more room than CL did on the same day, and yet LH was not able to utilize all that room and instead hit Max. This was LH just being stubborn and being fed up with Max having the upper hand, and refusing to cede again, when he should have. Hence his penalty, and he even nearly took himself out if not for having the luxury of his car repaired during the very red flag session he himself caused. And if said red flag session hadn’t gone on as long as it had LH might have taken himself right out of the race with his stubbornness and he wouldn’t be gloating about it now.

    Anyway, I’m sure LH knows this and is just enjoying having his digs against an extremely potent opponent who will continue to be his biggest threat to an 8th title until he retires.

    1. Hamilton knows he isn’t racing Verstappen for the championship this year, he is competing with him for superstar of the sport instead and he is playing very dirty!
      Every chance he gets to degrade Verstappen’s character or big up his own he will take, even by rewriting history with his comments about Silverstone last year.
      I think it kills him too seeing all the orange in the grandstands, hence the new yellow this year.
      I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sportsperson so desperate for attention before, he even took the attention from Vettel and Mansel while Vettel was celebrating Mansell’s 30 year old achievement, is he really that insecure, it’s unbelievable!!

      1. I totally agree and am actually intriged to one day find out what exactly is driving Lewis to display this behavior. He could have had it all. His desired suoer star status, the respect and glory. Yet he chooses to display behavior fittong to some one who feels threatened and insecure. Like somehow he also realises his tally of championships had a fair amount of luck in it. Why not choose the higher ground, be amicable to new talent, wear your 7 stars with some dignity. Nico should have been an indication Lewis was not moving in the right direction. We all saw his mind games with Nico and later his failed attempts with Max. He should do his talking on track.

  5. I too want to get paid for writing an entire article from a video someone else shared about a non-event.

    Instead I chose a career where I have to spend weeks away from the internet and climbing up and down mountains every day looking for animal poop. And then pay big corporates to publish my findings.

    1. @wsrgo I’m genuinely curious – what are you collecting the faecal samples for?

      1. @willwood For a few reasons:

        1. Estimate stress from fecal glucocorticoid levels and check whether the stress is greater in certain types of land-uses or anthropogenic stressors.

        2. To examine genetic variation in samples of the same species to estimate genetic connectivity across different landscape barriers.

        3. To examine whether dietary profiles vary based on availability of crops/livestock.

    2. Commercialization of science journal is the worst.

  6. Nothing has been tarnished Rob. Max is still viewed as the lucky champ by most pundits and even some his own fans have criticized him for his stupid antics in Jeddah last year, so he’s the only one who needs to back up his F1 title. Sir Lewis’s achievements are cemented so stop deluding your pitiful self. Lol

  7. The guardian angel protected him, I mean he could have spent his maturity in jail.

  8. Hamilton’s comment here is truly sad and outrageous—I can’t believe he used the f-word.

    1. You mean the f-word thats frequently beeped out of every second VER radio when things dont work perfect for him (like the *beep* DRS just a few races ago)?

    2. Hamilton’s comment here is truly sad and outrageous—I can’t believe he used the f-word

      A private conversation, not just eaves-dropped on, but recorded.
      Probably occurred just before the media crew told the pair they were starting the recording.

    3. I’m just trying to bring some levity to another installment of the silverstone crash debate that gets so very serious and angry so quickly.

      1. @dmw I can’t believe people thought you were being serious lmao.

  9. I always say that every accident between Lewis and Max were calculated move. They are the best drivers.

    Lewis has perfected clipping right rear tyre of Red Bull cars. It became his signature. I just hate when he did that to Albon. Twice.

  10. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    14th July 2022, 19:10

    Are people still blaming Lewis for the accident at Copse? The man avoided 100 crashes last season alone from Max.

    You can’t blame him for not avoiding the one at Copse. It was a sympathy penalty for Red Bull but it could have easily been a race ban for Max under normal stewardship.

    1. I think the issue here is the hypocrisy of Lewis’ comments. He is implying that Charles is not a dirty racer like Max because they didn’t collide at Copse. Max and Charles lines through the corner are near identical, yet it is Lewis’ line which is nearly a car width wider against Max which is the main reason for the crash last year.
      Max apparently ‘turned in on him’ yet Charles is fair? Which is it?

      1. LEC for sure is not such an overaggressive bully driver like VER. And Max copse crash was a result of his driving.

        1. I’m starting to think you are a wind up merchant.
          So, if Lewis had taken the same wider line as last year against Charles this year, who would be at fault for the inevitable crash?

          1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
            14th July 2022, 21:07

            I don’t think it would have mattered what line Lewis had taken. Max was going to take him out if he attempted to race him. Unfortunately it backfired and Max got what he deserved and, frankly, was lucky he didn’t get himself killed or kill Lewis at Monza.

          2. So are you saying Charles’ line this year was also dangerous, given that it was near identical to the one Max took against Lewis last year?
            I’m struggling to see the logic in your point.
            The truth is that if Lewis has taken a line a car width away from the inside, he would have smashed Charles off the track too.

          3. LEC did not take the same line. He didnt squeeze HAM to the right at the straight and thereby the two approched the corner in a very different line.

          4. @romtrain
            You should really watch the onboards again. Lewis’ front left and Charles’ back right wheels are really close even though Lewis is now on the inside kerb. If Lewis was even half a car width away from the inside they would have collided. He was a FULL car width away from the inside kerb against Max. It’s pretty clear if you want to actually look at it.

          5. Or else try this comparison.
            I mean, after another round of arguments and one year onward this video will surely change the mind of those who are still defending the driver that was predominantly to blame for the crash, right? ;)

      2. Leclerc is a far cleaner driver than Max. Not just because of Copse, but because of literally all the damn evidence proving as such. Max is a filthy driver.

    2. Absolute facts.

  11. When you see the headline of this article people will be thinking why can’t Sir Lewis move on from the Silverstone 2021 incident last year and also Silverstone this year 2 weeks ago but apparently RaceFans decided to take a 6sec video clip of 2 Drivers having a Private Conservation out out of a 17min Video and then decide to make a Story Article about it Really????

    Is that really Journalism???

    Stuff like this are fulling more hate.

    I don’t understand the point of this article???

  12. I couldn’t tell what he said at all when watching the video earlier today, shortly post-uploading.
    Good catch.

  13. Jelle van der Meer (@)
    15th July 2022, 0:16

    If it was Max fighting with Lewis, with Max driving the same line as Leclerc Lewis would not have cared and likely hit Max again into the barriers.

    Lewis didn’t care in 2021, he knew full well the big risk his move had to knock Max into the barrier, he also knew being on the side it was Max’s risk of hitting the barriers not his.

    Max left plenty of space for Lewis to make the corner in 2021 the problem is that Lewis carried too much speed with a full car on dirty side of the track to ever be able to make that corner at that speed, Lewis with all his experience knew this.

    1. Lewis also left much room for the crashkid to make the corner. But he chose hie usual yield or crash driving, and crash he did.

  14. @Lambert
    Exactly, and he was already moving away from it. So he would have been 2 car widths away from the actual apex. Thats even worse, thanks for highlighting that.

  15. August 2037 :
    – See, we can make copse with two persons …
    – move on, Dude ….

  16. Come on, people. Let this go. Everybody got happy in the end. HAM won his home race and added the “hero” drama at the end (very much unpleasantly for me but amazing for many others) and VER won the championship. Let’s move on !

    1. LOL!! A championship that will always have a *… Because it came down to a redbull employee directing the race director on the last race… We can argue for ever on thia subject.we all have our opinions.. It is what is. Atleast Lewis as the GOAT wont be remembered for dirty bully tactics.. He knew and was very effective at utilizing the grey area of the rules where as max was blatant and allowed to do so last year and at afew other races over the years. Leclerc on the other hand has shown his intelligence and race craft is way more than max can ever hope to achieve unless his car is miles faster.

  17. If he would be in the title fight, he would have chosen differently, like last year….

    1. Last year there was an overaggressive bully, divebombing and driving him off the track all the time, who itself chose to crash. LEC has far more professionell driving standards than the crashkid.

  18. With his underhanded comments and remarks Hamilton makes it clearer and clearer he purposely crashed into Verstappen.

    It was Hamilton’s Schumacher/Senna moment, and ever since he keeps trying to control the narrative to make himself look better.

    It is a sin and a shame he will have to carry with him the rest of his life.

  19. John (@barbsandwich)
    16th July 2022, 17:24

    Here we go again.

  20. I wonder who Merc would replace Lewis with if he chooses to finish his F1 career in 2022? This is not a dig at Lewis more just wondering what people think are the options. Could it be Lando?

  21. Lando is very good. So is russell. The new generation drivers are top notch. They just need competative cars. Check their pre f1 careers…

    1. Would love to see George and Lando together at Merc in 2023.

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