Toto Wolff - Wrong to expect Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen to wear "velvet gloves"

Hamilton and Verstappen after the Dutch Grand Prix — Photo: © LAT Images

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Wolff - Wrong to expect Hamilton and Verstappen to wear "velvet gloves"

Hamilton and Verstappen are separated by just five points after their Monza crash

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Friday 24 September 2021 13:00

Toto Wolff believes it is wrong to expect Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen to wear "velvet gloves" when fighting for the F1 drivers' title.

The two championship protagonists collided at Monza in the season's second major flashpoint, leading to both retiring and ensuring Verstappen holds a five-point lead with eight rounds remaining.

In the aftermath of the Italian Grand Prix crash, Wolff called Verstappen's manoeuvre a "tactical foul".

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Pushed on whether he still believed that to be the case, he responded: "The point is these two are racing for a drivers' championship and you cannot expect them to have velvet gloves on.

"That is why we are going to see harsh moments like this I believe.

"Obviously, I am biased and looking at how the whole race panned out, sometimes you have to just bail out which Lewis did on lap one.

"Could Max have done it? He probably would have lost the position. I think it is very difficult and dangerous to comment with the bias you have and obviously cheering for your driver and your team.

"These two know what they do to have it under control and I guess we had a good chance to chase the McLarens that were there on merit and score a bit more points."

Wolff not ruling out future collisions between Hamilton and Verstappen

Hamilton and Verstappen have had multiple near-misses this year as well as the two incidents at Silverstone and Italy.

Asked why he thought the drivers had the situation under control despite the close calls, Wolff replied: "I think they pretty much know what they do.

"In my opinion, if they both wanted to avoid collisions, we would have less collisions. If they don't avoid collisions because they feel it is right to not bail out or not give room, then we will have more.

"We are not sitting in the cars."