Following a series of run-ins, incidents and collisions with Max Verstappen, which became increasingly frequent throughout the bitter 2021 championship fight, Lewis Hamilton decided he needed to be tougher with his rival.
“I will be a more aggressive driver this year,” the Mercedes driver vowed ahead of the 2022 season. “You’ll see.”
Until last weekend we had little chance to see whether this was actually true or not. The Mercedes has not been competitive enough for Hamilton to find himself fighting Verstappen for victory as regularly as he did last year.
That began to change over the second half of the season, however. Finally in Brazil the two found themselves seriously disputing the same piece of asphalt again, and once more contact was made. Did the latest tangle in their eight years of racing each other show Hamilton has made good on his pledge to toughen up against Verstappen?
2018 Bahrain Grand Prix
The pair had a few run-ins before they clashed for the first time. At Suzuka in 2016 Verstappen held off Hamilton with some strong defensive moves as they disputed second place. The following year in Malaysia Hamilton didn’t put up a fight against Verstappen as he ensured he banked crucial points towards his fourth world championship title.
But at the second race of 2018, the Bahrain Grand Prix contact was made. Hamilton lined up ninth on the grid after a gearbox change penalty, Verstappen 15th after crashing in qualifying. By the end of lap one Verstappen was in Hamilton’s slipstream as they headed for turn one, and moved to pass him on the inside.
Verstappen never quite made it fully ahead of Hamilton before the corner, but used the full width of the track at the exit, leaving Hamilton the option of backing out or going off the circuit. Hamilton backed off, but tagged Verstappen’s rear-left tyre, causing a puncture which put Verstappen out of the race.
The stewards issued no penalty, which Verstappen was unimpressed about. “He drove into my left-rear, gave me a puncture and also destroyed the diff,” he complained.
Hamilton, who went on to finish third, said he had no desire to collide with Verstappen. “I just backed out because I knew he was going to try to run me wide,” he said. “But then he just kept going. He didn’t need to keep going to the edge of the track.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2019 Monaco Grand Prix
Passing in Monaco is virtually impossible, but that didn’t discourage Verstappen from trying to displace Hamilton from the lead in 2019. He dived for the inside line at the Nouvelle chicane with three laps to go, nudged Hamilton’s left-rear tyre, and the pair took to the run-off. Hamilton won while Verstappen fell from second to fourth in the final classification due to a five-second time penalty for an incident in the pit lane earlier in the race.
The penalty “fired me up”, said Verstappen afterwards. “As soon as I heard the penalty I was just pushing Lewis really hard.”
“There was no one to blame, also we didn’t have any real damage,” he added.
2019 Mexican Grand Prix
In Hungary that year Hamilton passed Verstappen to win, aided by significantly fresher tyres.
“As soon as I got into second I was like ‘okay, this whole battle we’ve been talking about me and Max having, we’re going to have that today’,” Hamilton said. “And it was really awesome.”
However he admitted again he had to play it safe because of the championship situation. “He put the car in some good places, I gave him space and more today, but that’s just from the mindset that we’re fighting slightly different,” he said. “If we were fighting over the same points it may have been a lot more aggressive but there was no need for that today.”
Those words certainly proved prophetic.
By the time the field reached Mexico, Hamilton was virtually assured of the title and fully into points-collecting mode. A first-lap collision with Verstappen was not at all what he wanted.
The circumstances were not entirely dissimilar to Bahrain a year earlier, Verstappen passing on the inside of a tight right-hander which led into a left. On this occasion, the Red Bull driver got slightly out of shape, nudging Hamilton, destabilising the Mercedes and provoking a messy tangle between the pair.
However it came about, when speaking about the incident afterwards Hamilton made it clear he now regarded Verstappen as a driver who required special handling.
“Every driver is slightly different,” he said. “Some are smarter. Some are very smart, aggressive and some are silly with it.”
The pandemic-disrupted 2020 season featured few incidents of note between the two. But 2021 would be very different.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2021 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix
From the opening round in Bahrain, 2021 promised to be the year Hamilton and Verstappen would finally face each other in a close championship contest. Despite what had gone before, few expected the mutual antagonism would reach such a peak.
Opening salvos were exchanged at the first race of the season in Bahrain: Verstappen passed Hamilton for the lead late in the race, but ran off-track doing so, and ceded the position back. The first win went to Hamilton.
So when Verstappen made a rapid getaway from third on the grid in the next race at Imola, he made sure Hamilton didn’t hang on around the outside of the Tamburello chicane, forcing his rival onto the steep kerbs on the outside, leaving the Mercedes with a slightly damaged front wing.
2021 British Grand Prix
The exchange of hostilities continued. In Portugal, Hamilton passed Verstappen and closed down a counter-attack at the exit of the corner, securing his second win. At round four in Spain, Verstappen dived for the inside at turn one and Hamilton sprung out of the way to avoid contact. But the Mercedes driver came back at him later in the race and took win number three.
Verstappen then went on a tear, taking four wins from five races and arriving at Hamilton’s home race with a 32-point lead in the championship. He extended that by passing pole-winner Hamilton at the start of F1’s first ever sprint race to win that and put himself on pole position for the grand prix.
But on Sunday Hamilton made the better getaway and tested Verstappen’s defences around the first eight corners of Silverstone. They screamed towards Copse with Hamilton still alongside the Red Bull, Verstappen moving back towards the racing line before swinging right into the corner with Hamilton on his inside.
The resulting contact was disastrous for Verstappen and, to his and Red Bull’s fury, ultimately had no consequence for Hamilton. The Red Bull was embedded in the Copse barrier from which Verstappen extracted himself but was later taken to hospital for checks. Hamilton suffered potentially terminal damage, but as the race was red-flagged Mercedes were able to repair it. The stewards ruled he was “predominantly” to blame for the collision and gave him a 10-second time penalty, but Hamilton overcame that as he scorched through the field to win the race.
Red Bull were outraged, and took the unprecedented step of enlisting reserve driver Alexander Albon to recreate Hamilton’s line through the corner during a subsequent test session to use as a pretext to demand the penalty decision be reviewed. Their request was denied.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2021 Italian Grand Prix
The next collision occured at much lower speeds, but was also potentially dangerous. Verstappen landed on top of Hamilton after trying to overtake the Mercedes driver at Monza.
The Red Bull driver had been running in a strong second place behind Daniel Ricciardo until he lost time with a slow pit stop. Hamilton emerged from his pit stop ahead of the Red Bul.
Verstappen tried to pass him around the outside of turn one at the Rettifilo, but remained behind the Mercedes on the way in. He tried to stay on the inside for the following left-hander, but drive over the high kerb on the inside and rode up onto the Mercedes.
The stewards held Verstappen “predominantly” to blame for the collision, noting his car “was not at all alongside car 44 [Hamilton] until significantly into the entry into turn one”.
“In the opinion of the stewards, this manoeuvre was attempted too late for the driver of car 33 [Verstappen] to have ‘the right to racing room’,” they added. He was given a three-place grid penalty for the next race.
2021 Brazilian Grand Prix
With four grands prix to go, the championship arithmetic was simple: Hamilton could only be sure of the title if he won each of them, assuming Verstappen kept finishing second behind him.
In Brazil the Mercedes was by far the quicker car, but Hamilton had to fight from the back after penalties for a power unit change and a technical infringement. Verstappen was the last driver he needed to pass to take the lead.
The situation posed a dilemma for Hamilton which repeated over the final races of 2021. He needed to find a way past Verstappen without risking race-ending contact. A collision which put both of them out would play in Verstappen’s favour, as it left Hamilton with one less opportunity to reduce the points gap.
Verstappen clearly understood this, and pushed his defensive tactics to new extremes. Approaching Descida do Lado, turn four at Interlagos, Hamilton moved ahead of Verstappen on the outside. Verstappen braked late, missed the apex of the corner and ran off the track at the exit. Hamilton saw it coming, left himself room to avoid a collision, and successfully caught and passed Verstappen later to win.
To the surprise of many, the stewards took no action over the incident. This decision was questioned by several drivers afterwards, not least those who had been penalised for similar moves earlier in the year. Mercedes successfully petitioned the stewards to review their decision after new video footage from Verstappen’s car emerged, but they upheld the decision not to penalise Verstappen.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
The increasingly familiar scenario of Hamilton trying to pass Verstappen on the outside of a corner played out again on lap 37 of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. This time Verstappen got crossed up and again took to the run-off, while Hamilton scrabbled back onto the track as soon as he could.
As in Bahrain, Red Bull realised this wouldn’t be allowed to stand, and told Verstappen to give Hamilton the position back. He decided to do this immediately before a DRS zone, which would give him an opportunity to immediately re-pass the Mercedes. Hamilton, seeing this coming, also backed off as he closed on the Red Bull. Verstappen therefore hit the brakes, and Hamilton ran into the back of him.
The stewards said Verstappen braked “suddenly and significantly” and “in a manner which caused a collision”. For this he was given a 10-second time penalty, in addition to his five-second penalty for gaining an advantage by going off the track. Hamilton emerged from the chaos to win, his car still carrying the damage from the contact, and the pair went into the final race level on points.
2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
The events of the final lap of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix propelled the race to notoriety, but also overshadowed the controversy which erupted over the title contenders’ first lap dice.
Vertappen started from pole but Hamilton immediately took the lead from him and held it to turn six where Verstappen dived to pass him on the inside. Hamilton found himself with no room on the exit, and cut the chicane completely to keep going, while Verstappen remained on the track.
Although Hamilton rejoined ahead of his rival, the stewards determined Verstappen had forced him off and the Mercedes driver had yielded the time advantage he gained by going off the circuit.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2022 Brazilian Grand Prix
Hamilton and Verstappen had not been involved in a prolonged on-track encounter during 2022 until last weekend. In the sprint race at Interlagos Hamilton picked his way past a wounded Verstappen, but the pair faced each other properly in the main event.
At a Safety Car restart, Verstappen attempted to go around the outside on Hamilton at the left-handed turn one, and did nose ahead, though he had braked very late to do it and Hamilton was ahead again by the exit of the corner. Verstappen tried to take the inside line for turn two, but Hamilton maintained his right to the corner and made for the apex, where they collided.
The stewards came down on Hamilton’s side, ruling Verstappen “did not complete the pass in turn one and his excess speed compromised his entry into turn two, at which point he made contact with Hamilton” and was therefore “predominantly” at fault.
The collision had shades of Monza 2021 about it. Hamilton may have been judged in the right, but had the positions been reversed, would Verstappen have given another rival as much space at the exit of turn one to attempt a pass at the next corner?
It still seems as if Hamilton is not prepared to fight Verstappen as hard as the Red Bull driver pushes him. Verstappen is a tough driver, but he seems to take an especially firm line with Hamilton, and has shown repeatedly he is more prepared to risk contact with him than others.
For much of 2021 Hamilton had too much to lose to risk being eliminated in a collision with Verstappen. Arguably that also held true last weekend, as he was keen not to squander Mercedes’ best hope of winning a race so far this year.
Now that box is ticked, it will be intriguing to see how aggressive Hamilton is prepared to be if he and Verstappen find themselves disputing the same piece of asphalt again this weekend – and on into 2023.
Become a RaceFans Supporter
RaceFans is run thanks in part to the generous support of its readers. By contributing £1 per month or £12 per year (or the same in whichever currency you use) you can help cover the costs of creating, hosting and developing RaceFans today and in the future.
Become a RaceFans Supporter today and browse the site ad-free. Sign up or find out more via the links below:
