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Lewis Hamilton’s Hypocrisy over Max Verstappen’s Dominance Called Out by F1 Legend with Brutal Dose of Reality

Published 08/08/2023, 7:00 AM EDT

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As we count the days until racing action resumes, most will be praying for a different outcome at the Dutch GP. In the first 12 races of the reduced 22-race season, it’s been one-way traffic. The RB19-Max Verstappen duo is proving to be extremely deadly and the rest of the grid does not have an answer. This frustrating scenario is simply leading the likes of Lewis Hamilton to complain and make suggestions to end such one-sided racing scenarios. However, the Brit after his hypocritical complaints got a brutal dose of reality from an F1 legend.

During the entirety of the Hybrid era, except in 2016, Hamilton won with sheer dominance. During that time, Hamilton made statements which are contrary to his current statements about Red Bull’s dominance. This gave, as quoted by Formula Passion, gave Juan Pablo Montoya an opportunity to give Hamilton a dose of harsh reality.

via Reuters

“Verstappen is doing a great job at the moment, he seems invincible like when Hamilton won everything, this is the reality. Max is a very good driver, but for now, he has the best car. Verstappen’s speed right now is no higher than it was two years ago, it’s probably the same. Only that the car is much faster,” said Montoya.

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After his compliments, Montoya moved toward his criticism, superficially of Lewis Hamilton. He said, ” It’s very nice to complain when you don’t win, but when Lewis won he said that the car didn’t give him any advantage. Instead, Mercedes‘ advantage was as big as what Red Bull currently has. I don’t want to say that Hamilton isn’t good, on the contrary, he is a great driver. But the reality of this sport is that you have to be in the best car.”

However, this isn’t the first occasion in which Hamilton has received criticism for his statements. He has upset a lot of entities with his claims and it obviously includes the entire Red Bull hierarchy.

Christian Horner launches a personal attack on Lewis Hamilton for his attempts to handicap Red Bull

Seeing Red Bull’s dominance, the Brit suggested the FIA interviews and take actions that will rectify this one-sided slope in favor of Red Bull. Hamilton’s suggestion was because Red Bull has already started working on their 2024 car because of the RB19’s superiority, the FIA should put a start time for future developments. Safe to say, Hamilton’s attempts to handicap Red Bull did not sit well with the team. This is why Christian Horner launched a personal attack on the Brit.

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via Reuters

He’s obviously speaking from personal experience. I think it would be incredibly hard to control. How on earth could you say, ‘All right, August 1st, let’s go!’ How can you prevent people from thinking about or working on next year’s cars?” said the boss.

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Horner also outlines, “We have a handicap system in Formula 1 by reducing the time spent in the wind tunnel. Franz (Tost, AlphaTauri Team Principal) has almost twice as much time as we do. That’s a significant handicap.” 

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Hamilton is definitely paying for unapologetically speaking his mind. However, despite his suggestions, the Austrian team shouldn’t have a lot of trouble keeping their advantage. They are after all a step or two ahead of the rest.

WATCH THIS STORY | Christian Horner Sparks Rivalry: Toto Wolff’s F2 Remark Refuted

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Written by:

Mahim Suhalka

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Mahim Suhalka is a senior F1 Author at EssentiallySports. Having written over 1000 articles, Mahim specializes in core sports coverage. Having followed the sport for a long time, his articles contain excellent analysis of the sport and he dives deeper into the technicalities of this complex sport.
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Edited by:

Aishwary Gaonkar