F1 News: Max Verstappen Responds To Lewis Hamilton - "There's Jealousy"
Max Verstappen has been having a blast in his RB19 this season as he has won 13 of the 15 races held so far. Despite leaving the pack far behind due to his meritocracy, as Toto Wolff calls it, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton brushed aside his achievements by saying that he had to compete against stronger teammates during his prime days than Verstappen has had to.
The statements attracted reactions from several noted personalities in F1 including Martin Brundle and David Coulthard. Verstappen however, has finally responded to Hamilton's jibe while talking to the Dutch media yesterday.
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He said that it must never be about teammates because at the end of the day, what matters is your own performance. However, he didn't let it pass by him that easily:
“It’s not nice of Hamilton towards the teammates I had, but it is ironic that after that interview of his in Monza, many of my teammates were ahead of him in qualifying.
"I respect the dominance of others and Lewis's titles in the past. In my view, it doesn't need to be about others' teammates. It's about your own performance, how you perform in your race weekends and how you work together with your team. The rest is secondary.
"Maybe there's a bit of jealousy. Good for Netflix? That doesn't concern me much either."
The Dutch diver was right when he spoke of his ex-teammates being ahead of Hamilton in qualifying at Monza. Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz, who once drove alongside the current championship leader, managed to out-qualify the Mercedes driver who qualified for P8 in Monza.
Verstappen aims for his eleventh consecutive Grand Prix win of the season in Singapore but, with the Marina Bay Street Circuit being a high-downforce track, chances of rival cars being a lot closer are higher, when compared to high-speed low-downforce tracks like Spa and Monza.
