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Criticism of Wolff and Hamilton after Verstappen comments: 'Surprised'
- Toby McLuskie
Martin Brundle thoroughly enjoyed the Italian Grand Prix. Ferrari briefly competed for victory in its home race, but in the end the Italian formation once again had to acknowledge its superiority to Max Verstappen, who crossed the finish line first for the tenth time in a row on Sunday. Brundle gives the reigning world champion a 10 for his performance at Monza. Incidentally, the F1 commentator finds Mercedes' comments about Max's performance a bit strange.
"What an achievement to faultlessly keep up that level of performance and reliability on many different track layouts and in varying weather conditions, up against mighty opposition," Brundle stated in his column for Sky Sports after the Monza Grand Prix. "If a tennis player or football or rugby team for example was so utterly complete and dominant, they would rightly be globally lauded at the highest level. As should this pairing be. Sport can and should be tribal, but you must surely also appreciate a level of excellence in others."
Statements Hamilton and Wolff
As is well known, Verstappen took over Sebastian Vettel's record of most consecutive victories in the king class of motorsport. According to Lewis Hamilton, Verstappen's achievement is not much more impressive than the dominant periods of a Michael Schumacher. Moreover, all of Hamilton's former teammates were better than Verstappen's, the seven-time world champion himself believes.
Toto Wolff echoed this on Sunday after the Italian GP by stating that Verstappen's record is only interesting for Wikipedia and no one else cares. Those statements from the Mercedes camp raised eyebrows at Brundle. "So I was a little surprised and disappointed that Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff played down this achievement over the weekend, because they rightly received their due reverence and appreciation during their years of total domination from 2014 to 2020."
Red Bull won't forget this
The Sky Sports analyst thinks there are still some old wounds and that Wolff and Hamilton's statements have something to do with that. "At the same time Max and Red Bull will no doubt reflect on a few past actions and words which have diluted their current appreciation levels in some quarters. But it's all to be expected when you put so many intensely competitive people into the same space," he argues.