The Italian Grand Prix was thrown somewhat of a curveball around the mid way point of the race. A curveball that caused a large amount of mixed feelings and reactions, with some over the top reactions as well.
It was an unfortunate and awkward incident, and clumsy. Every one who follows the sport knows how large of a role that orange sausage kerb played. Max Verstappen hitting that sausage kerb is what sent his car into the direction of Lewis Hamilton’s, making a rear tyre on rear tyre contact.
Side note, it was clearly another win for the Halo device so top marks there.
Verstappen was handed a three place grid penalty and two penalty points, but is that correct?
The incident itself has caused a range of reactions, with a lot of them being overreactions – thanks to the delight that is social media. Obviously, the two camps are going to be defending their own, as Toto Wolff called the move by Verstappen a ‘tactical foul’ – which obviously added fuel to the fire. Whilst the silly ones turned to abuse and petulance as they lost their heads in usual fashion, frantically typing away on twitter.
As Jack Miller beautifully said, “opinions are like arseholes, everyone has one.”
This crash did indeed split opinion, of course it did. The likes of Damon Hill and Johnny Herbert were in the basket favouring Hamilton, whereas Paul Di Resta and Felipe Massa were in the one for racing incident. SkyF1 were broadcasting a full-on debate, that is when the likes of Herbert was allowing the ones on the other side to talk.
Anyway, let’s start from the beginning of this whole adventure. It is funny how it was destined that those two would meet at the end of the pitlane. Both drivers suffered slower stops then they would have liked, with Verstappen’s being 11 seconds to Hamilton’s four. Which, in turn, invited the two drivers to the same piece of tarmac.
As soon as Hamilton had cleared the white line on the exit, he promptly moved to the left under braking in an attempt to keep Verstappen behind. With the difference in speed when both drivers hit the brakes, the Red Bull man had to dip his front wheel onto the painted green on the left at corner entry as he went to the outside. It was a familiar move to the one Charles Leclerc made under braking on Lewis Hamilton at Monza in turn four in 2019 – a move that left Hamilton rather unhappy.
It is a brave move to go around the outside of the tight turn one, but we all knew Verstappen was not going to back out. Hamilton squeezed the Dutchman to a point where just the two wheels on the right hand side of the Red Bull were on the track. Still, Verstappen was not going to back out of this. And Hamilton was not going to stop squeezing.
Verstappen clouted the sausage kerb on the inside of two, subsequently sending him toward the direction of Hamilton which in turn caused the unlucky touch between the rear wheels. An unfortunate situation which is not seen often, the rear tyres just happened to touch at a moment in time which flung Verstappen’s Red Bull into the air. Awkward touch, the tyres could have easily just rubbed the other, but fate had it that they would grip onto one another.
But, in this situation it takes two to tango. Both drivers were aggressive in their moves. Verstappen could have bailed out to the left, and Hamilton could have left the Dutchman more room.
There have been some remarks comparing this incident to the one from Valencia 2012, which ironically also involved Hamilton. Pastor Maldonado was attempting a move around the outside of the then McLaren driver. After going wide and bumping along a collection of little sausage kerbs, the Williams of Maldonado hit Hamilton and sent him into the wall.
But there is a glaring difference between the two. Maldonado had all four wheels off of the track in that incident, Verstappen did not.
You would think by how much track limits is talked about, the ruling on the white line at the edge of the track would be clear…
Both drivers will play the victim, but neither can. Together, as a team, they both caused the incident to happen. Put the clash into a different perspective, would Hamilton have squeezed so hard if the driver on the outside was someone like Lando Norris?
Would Verstappen have gone for the move around the outside as aggressive as he did if it was someone like Norris on the inside?
Arguably, both misjudged the situation. Verstappen would have expected more room from Hamilton who swiftly shut the door, and Hamilton would have expected Verstappen to take avoiding action across the bumps. Naivety. Both drivers should have known that neither is going to back out, and both drivers should have known that by doing so an incident is just around the corner.
There was always going to be a penalty handed out, whether you agree with the decision or not. The stewards set their precedents after Silverstone, that incident meant this one had to be penalised. However, you could argue that the decision to give Verstappen a grid penalty and penalty points was due to the aftermath of the crash instead of the actual incident itself.
Many drivers went through turns one and two side by side in similar fashion, there was no reason why these two could not.
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