Max Verstappen penalized, Damon Hill blames him

The words of Damon Hill

Max Verstappen, in his sixth endothermic engine of the season, will serve a five-position penalty on the starting grid for the 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix, valid as the fourth-last chapter of the F1 World Championship season.

The Dutch driver è ended up in the crosshairs of critics and in particular Damon Hill accused him on the microphones of Sky Sports F1: “Max has a problem: he refuses to concede ground to anyone in an overtake. At the exit of Turn 4 he clearly prevented Norris from retaliating in any way by pointing to the edge of the track. Just look at the footage: there’è was no attempt to slow down and give Lando room. È is that really what we want to see in this sport?”.

“The wheel-to-wheel challenge between Lawson and Perez è was excellent, with no malice in’preventing overtaking. The same goes for Hamilton and Russell. So è it is possible to race fair, but I am not sure Max is capable of that. It is not part of his philosophy", he added.

"I don’t know if 10 seconds was the right penalty, but certainly Verstappen’s second move è was just stupid. He accelerated preventing Lando from cornering. Max has a great competitive spirit, but I don’t think he can take pride in his action. Verstappen has the fault of resorting to preventive methods instead of staying within the bounds of fairness. He should not be allowed to use the’car as a weapon and block the track. If drivers were allowed to do what they’d like, you would not see any overtaking’

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And again: "C’è always a protective comment from Horner towards Max. So Verstappen feels free to do what he wants. The team will never criticize his driving”. In short, according to Damon, Red Bull would be equally responsible for this situation: “Sooner or later there has to be a conversation. È it is up to the team to correct the driver’s attitude. We want to see spectacular overtaking, not people colliding”.