Tom Clarkson leads all press conferences on behalf of Formula 1. He does that on Thursday during the media day and on Saturday and Sunday after qualifying and race when the top three drivers line up for some questions from the news.
On Saturday, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton took one of the three seats after qualifying. Logically, Clarkson asked about the start of Sunday, because two weeks earlier the two had come into contact in Great Britain.
He couldn’t even finish his question before the Red Bull driver interrupted him to make it clear that he had to stop with those ‘fucking’ questions, because he had heard enough about them in recent days. He puts in the F1 Nation Podcast what the thinking behind those questions was.
“We wanted the title fight to be more about the drivers than about the team bosses,” he refers to Horner and Wolff, who blamed each other for everything and dominated the headlines. “That press conference was the first moment that Max and Lewis were together in the same room. So I thought, yes, I’m going to ask what could happen in the first lap. But Max interrupted me…”
Alan McNish, former Formula 1 driver and now team principal in Formula E, was also a member of the podcast and could understand the Dutchman. “I get Max’s point. He has discussed this whole scenario with everything and everyone from day one,” said the Scot, who thought that Red Bull may have been too focused on the crash.
“But it’s the right of the media, because that was the story of the weekend after the race in Britain. However, sometimes the teams have to take a step back and remember where to focus, because that’s on the race. and not on this issue. How do we get our team focused on the race again? Mercedes and Toto Wolff managed to do better and the team qualified better on Saturday than Red Bull.”
Clarkson takes the floor again and says that he thinks Hamilton got under Verstappen’s skin in some way after all. “Speaking of Max and his PR. He could easily have disapproved of the fans’ cheers at Hamilton. He could have easily said that he appreciated the support of the orange colored fans, but that they had to respect all drivers. show. He chose not to.”
He continues: “When he was in the same space with Hamilton for the first time after the crash at Silverstone and he was asked about the first lap, he could have done it with a joke. But no, he started to ‘f-and’ (swearing, ed.), which really surprised Lewis. Besides Max, he had a big smile behind his mouth cap while Verstappen said that. He really thought ‘now I’ve got Verstappen, 1-0 for me’.
McNish understands that statement, but according to him it’s simply because Max doesn’t make a murder pit out of his heart. “This fight for the world title is not only on the track, but also off the track. We must not forget the mental aspect. Verstappen could have handled it a little better, but Max’s heart is both on and off the track. job on his tongue,” said the Scot.
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