Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff have been widely criticised by fans and pundits alike for downplaying Max Verstappen’s achievements in the wake of last weekend’s Italian Grand Prix. The Dutchman crossed the line in first place to secure his 10th straight win, setting a new all-time record in the process.
Hamilton was not overly impressed, though, as he insisted that Verstappen was no better than Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso or any other dominant driver before him. Toto Wolff, meanwhile, branded his new record ‘completely irrelevant’ and suggested that it would only be noticed by people reading obscure F1 statistics on Wikipedia.
The pair have since been slammed by Martin Brundle, who was left ‘surprised and disappointed’ by their remarks on Verstappen. He told Sky Sports: “If a tennis player or football or rugby team for example was so utterly complete and dominant, they would rightly be globally lauded at the highest level, as should this pairing be.
“Sport can and should be tribal, but you must surely also appreciate a level of excellence in others. So I was a little surprised and disappointed that Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff played down this achievement over the weekend because they rightly received their due reverence and appreciation during their years of total domination from 2014 to 2020.”
