Double World Champion Mika Hakkinen says the racing in Saudi Arabia “was not positive” and criticised the “dangerous” clash between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.
Verstappen attempted to relinquish the lead to Hamilton along the back straight, having been requested to do so following their Turn 1/2 incident, but did so by braking, with Hamilton also slowing, before making contact with his title rival.
Stewards deemed Verstappen’s actions to be worthy of a 10-second time penalty and also issued two penalty points on his licence.
Hakkinen, writing in his Unibet blog, believes the situation was complicated by the manner of communication between various parties, but that the manner in which it unfolded was dangerous.
“With Max being asked to give the lead back to Lewis, the solution was clear,” he said.
“When you have to let a car repass there is only one way to do it safely. That is to make a clear move to one side, come off the throttle slightly and allow the natural speed differential to enable your competitor to repass you.
“What happened in Jeddah was dangerous. Both drivers knew that the DRS activation line lay ahead, so neither wanted to be the first across it since that would enable the other driver to overtake them on the next straight.
“We also now know that while Max had been given the instruction to allow Lewis to pass, Lewis had not yet been informed and was momentarily confused. As a result I think the teams and FIA will need to look at the process, and perhaps the technology, used to send messages to drivers.
“Looking at what happened next, I do not believe that Max was ‘brake testing’ Lewis – that is, trying to force a collision which could easily have put both cars out of the race.
“Instead he was trying to force Lewis to overtake him at the point. However the way he slowed, and the position of his car on the track, was definitely a problem. The FIA has revealed that Max’s car produced 2.4G-force under braking.
“To give you an idea of what that is like, a high-performance road car with ABS would produce about 1.2G under maximum braking. This was almost twice that, and we could see Max slowed from eighth to third gear in the process.
“Whatever the reason, it was not positive racing and the FIA was right to apply a penalty after the race.
“While we can argue about the size of the penalty – considering it did not change the results – the message is clear.
“Dangerous driving will lead to a penalty and if the FIA see a repeat of this kind of driving in Abu Dhabi I believe the penalty will be severe and immediate.”
Hakkinen, who won his two world titles after prevailing in last-race showdowns in 1998 and 1999, is hopeful the 2021 championship can be decided fairly.
“I have always been of the opinion that you have to race positively, not negatively,” he wrote.
“Winning the World Championship should be all about speed, precision, race craft and proving that you can beat the other driver in a straight fight – a sporting fight.
“That’s what I want to see next Sunday, and I know that’s what the FIA, Formula 1 and the fans want too.”
It is just not true what also Hakinen says. HAM now admitts he did not want to pass the DRS line first, so he knew VER was slowing down and he was not “confused” as now Hakinen states. Why this constant lying of this MERC gang.
First of all, his name is HAKKINEN, and RedBull should start giving your “Merc gang” some credit for building a car so fast that the FIA had to implement 3 major rule changes in the span of less than 12 months, just to slow Lewis down enough so Max can catch him. So regardless of the championship outcome, Horner and Marko owe the FIA a HUGE thank you for helping to put them back in the game in the first place. Did you already forget that it was only 2 years ago that the RedBull car was a solid THIRD fastest on the grid, before Ferrari decided to start cheating.
Their team name is RED BULL, with a space.
Why are you slowing down in front of a DRS zone and placing your car in the middle of the track. That is VERY stupid from Max giving the way he been driving dangerously ALL DAY. Before you take ANY action with him you need to think twice.
A simple solution would be to not allow the opening of the wing in the next section, when you have to give up position.
Max intentions before the race was to take out Lewis at any cost, and RB knew this, and also Masi is probably their biggest contributor.
VER vas very lucky not to get black-flagged. You can’t get closer to a black flag than that.
Verstappen and Hamilton knew the potential outcomes of going through the DRA detection zone first. F1 should consider a DRS delay…if the competitor relinquishing portion does so before a detection zone they should initiate a 5 second delay once in the DRS…which effectively denies a new overtake. Penalties should be penalties for dangerous actions…Mac was dangerous.
Talking about dangerous, at Silverstone Hamilton deliberately put Verstappen into the wall hoping to injure him, and not at all bothered if he killed him. Hamilton is the only cheating, dangerous driver on the Formula One grid.
What about Max parking his car on Hams head? Stop living in the past… There were 2 instances where Max went off track and gained an advantage this time… Plus the 2nd time he almost took Lewis with him. Even if you say the DRS thing was fine and it was just a misunderstanding between all…. The other off track incidents anyway had to be a penalty and eventually Max would have lost as he was on the medium tyres which were almost dead anyway and he was never going to get a 5 second gap to Lewis.
Lewis made a legit attempt up the inside and was alongside. Max with his inexperience decided not to run a little wide (like Lewis does every time to fight another day) and instead make contact. That’s why he ended up in the wall, and will again if he never learns.
Both drivers fully aware of drs line so just a racing incident at best
Lewis had all the place & time to avoid that collision but he decided to make puncture in Max car.
Such a looser and as we all know Mercedes have all the money to do what ever they want nobody fucking going to stop them.
The desire to see LH lose has clouded some people’s vision. I am surprised by the persistent defence of MV behaviour on track and off track. The very first time I really saw him was his aggression towards Ocon in 2018. It was way over the line. I am disappointed dangerous driving is called ‘hard racing’ or ‘pushing the edge’ I know the difference between hard racing and having disregard for your own life and others.. MV maybe all the hype of a new generation driver, the way he has shown himself to me, how could I see his driving skills? All F1 champions has crashed because the desire to win is strong. I get that and I can work out the maths and reason and it falls into the value of acceptance. But for MV, it is outside the value of acceptance IMHO. The FIA is trying to find the balance, the clue was the word, ‘erratic’. They are still being nice, if he does not rein his negative actions in, he may well face their wrath in the future. The world is watching and the FIA knows.
F1 now belongs to Bollywood…
!!! That’s racing and the consequences of the high octane Adrenalin …. both are good drivers and teams even though the ‘Bollywood drama’ of F1 nowadays has become more n more significant…