Max Verstappen’s victory in the Formula 1 race in Austria was overshadowed by the subsequent and unprecedented flood of penalties. Even during the race there was a lot of trouble because drivers kept leaving the track and were blackened by their competitors. This annoyed Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, among others.
“I think they probably have to find a new solution for this track,” Hamilton said after the race, when asked about the countless track limit violations. Just a few years ago, the Mercedes driver added, there were other, “softer” track limits: “It was more fun to drive on this track.”
In the end, it wasn’t just the overly strict track limits that bothered Hamilton. What particularly annoyed him were all the “snitches” in the field, who kept radioing the competition’s violations of the rules to their command posts. Hamilton was also blackened several times in the race, including by Lando Norris.
“It’s not racing, is it?
“It’s strange to say something about the car in front of you because the team wants it from you. It was something like that in Austin a few years ago, but that’s not racing, is it? That’s not motorsport,” he said Mercedes driver, who then personally approached Norris.
“As soon as he [Norris] passed me, he left the track about ten times. And so did Pérez. He came out in turns nine and ten, but didn’t get a penalty,” said Hamilton, who advocated tamping the track limit penalties. “It should be allowed to come out and not get a penalty for it,” he said.
Hamilton complains about weak Mercedes
The surprisingly poor performance of his own car, which was not able to keep up with the competition in Spielberg, caused additional frustration for the record world champion. Hamilton could not explain why this was so.
“I didn’t expect us to be as bad as we ended up being. I don’t have an answer for that and it’s definitely surprising. […] It was different compared to the last two races. It was much, much better there,” he complained about a lack of balance and a nervous rear end.