The titanic rivalry between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen has been put on hold since 2022. However, the talk of the town has been the epic move Hamilton pulled on Verstappen on the very first lap of the race. Even though the stewards didn’t make too much of the Brit’s aggressive pass on the Dutch lion out on turn 3, Verstappen came out after the race and was in the mood to accuse. Now, in hindsight, an ex-Dutch F1 driver has come out with a scathing response to Hamilton and his supporters.

A small recap of on-field action would show that Verstappen has been dominating the entire field, and the 7x champion has been languishing in the upper echelons of the midfield due to the performance differential in their respective cars. However, the 2023 Australian Grand Prix was the first time in a long, long time that the two world champions were pitted against each other in a battle for a win.

Lewis Hamilton accused of being a finished whiner

It’s no secret that there is a divide amongst the F1 paddock regulars and fans as to who they tend to side with. However, ex-F1 driver Christijan Albers has come out with a very harsh appraisal of the Brit.

He told De Telegraaf’s podcast, “You see in the heat of the moment that you get the same on-board radios from Max Verstappen as from Lewis Hamilton two years ago. If it had been the other way around, Hamilton would of course have been completely finished, sawed to his chair legs and would have been a whiner.” [translated via Google Translate]

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In the end, Verstappen claimed P1, while Hamilton finished second. And while Verstappen and his camp have their opinions, Hamilton has his own.

Lewis Hamilton defends himself while getting heat from Verstappen & Co.

Hamilton has been catching a lot of heat for his move on Verstappen. But even though Verstappen fans have been making a ruckus for that move on lap one, the 38-year-old has stood by his guns amongst all the chaos and attacks.

Hamilton was quoted by Sky Sports F1 as saying, “I was fully up the inside and I think we both left space for each other. I didn’t run him off the road and he didn’t turn in on me, so we didn’t touch and that’s racing.”

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