Andrew Shovlin has slammed Red Bull for their statements on the Italian GP crash.
Hamilton and Verstappen crashed on Lap 26 of the Italian GP, taking each other out in the process. The stewards looked at the incident, and determined that Verstappen was “predominantly to blame” for the collision. As a result, they handed him a three-place grid penalty for the Russian GP.
Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner said that it was a racing incident “when you look at it objectively”. He thought that Verstappen “deserved a bit more space from Hamilton”. This did not go down well with Shovlin, who slammed Red Bull for their statements.
“I mean, we obviously felt strongly that Lewis had done absolutely nothing wrong, and that Max was the one predominantly to blame,” Shovlin said, as quoted by the Race.
“I think if you look at the fact even Helmut and Christian weren’t trying to blame Lewis, it sort of feels like they know Max was in the wrong, because they will try and blame Lewis at any opportunity.”
Would have won
Shovlin justifies his anger with what happened by stating that were it not for the crash, Hamilton’s pace would have seen him challenge for the win.
“If you take the incident with Max, put it to one side, for Lewis it would’ve been a race against only Daniel (Ricciardo),” he said.
“And the issue in the sprint race was Lando had some tow from the car ahead. So really it would’ve been a question of whether Lewis could’ve got by Daniel.
“You know that kind of zone that Lewis goes into when there’s a win on the table and he can see it, but it would’ve been a good little battle in the end – but it would’ve needed that pass on track to turn it into a win.”
“So you’ll always feel that three places (grid penalty) is relatively easy to overcome if you’ve got a competitive car. But that’s all in the past now. We need to make sure we put a good weekend together in Russia,” he concluded.
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Lewis could not even catch them in the sprint on Saturday Lando kept him at bay and he could not respond
Why would he do betteron Sunday?
Wishful thinking from Mercedes
Cos it wasn’t a sprint race on Sunday….
Did you even read the article where this is explained
I’d love to see the 3 grid place penalty explained by the FIA.
They already explained it!
Go to the FIA website and read it for yourself
Should have been a 3 race ban for Max. Don’t like him at all. Only slightly better thsn Jos.
You might not like Max but what a boring season it would be without him. Lewis would be marching to an unchallenged victory. What point would there be in watching a foregone conclusion?
Both to blame a pair of big headed over paid idiots
maybe my english is not so good, but “Lewis had done absolutely nothing wrong, and that Max was the one predominantly to blame” looks to me as a contradiction……either Lewis did absolutely nothing wrong and Max is FULLY to blame, OR Max is predominantly to blame and Lewis was somehow in the wrong too….just saying
If Lewis’s car had been the one on top of Max who would have the blame then i wonder ?.
Coz he was on mediums like bottas the hard work was done at start on the hard tyres he would of been a second a lap quicker if not more by the end