United States GP – Accusations, middle finger, insults: it is all-out war between Red Bull and Mercedes – Eurosport FR

There are six Grands Prix left to separate Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton on one side, Red Bull and Mercedes on the other, and all the arguments are now good to gain the upper hand. Well, that’s a way of speaking because we now have the right to the worst between the protagonists of Milton Keynes and Brackey, on the track and off. All the accusations are now valid in an attempt to destabilize the opposing camp. Finally, especially from RBR.

Of course, the Silverstone and Monza clashes have been there. Swung into a wall with G force (51 in total), Max Verstappen retaliated at the hospital by accusing his rival and the entire Mercedes team of having shamelessly celebrated their rather embarrassing victory. “That’s what I found to be really disrespectful, and in a way, it shows how they really are.”, had dropped MV33, supported by his team. Advisor to Red Bull Racing, Helmut Marko continued this moral trial by demanding a suspension for the Briton.

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To defend himself, the latter had specified: “I saw on the screen that he got out of the car and looked fine, then I was told he was fine. What a monumental moment it was for us to experience all of this. the home crowd for the first time [depuis 2019]. It wasn’t like an intentional celebration; it was just the joy to see so many people celebrating, being together is the national emotion. “

Has the hatchet been dug up?

“I called Max just to check if he was okay and let him know the respect is still there. Obviously it might not be reciprocated, but that’s okay.”, had slipped the seven-time world champion, not late by a spade but above all frustrated to have found the door closed in Copse when he had left it open a few turns before.

Max Verstappen had badly cashed his big points lost in England, badly digested the damage on his engine, which had pushed him to take a fourth in Sochi to end the season; with start in last position at the key. Knowing him, we could not expect anything other than distance in Monza. “I was groggy in my cockpit and I just saw Max walk past me”, Lewis Hamilton was offended.

Since then, their paths had not crossed but it was armed peace. Was the hatchet unearthed in Austin? Everything leads to believe it because it heated by interposed media, well before the clash on the track, Friday.

And when Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have nothing to be ashamed of, their bosses take charge of climbing the towers. Red Bull, convinced to end the season with the best aerodynamics and the best engine, had been taken aback by the speed of the Mercedes in Turkey, and had openly questioned the sudden ability of the W12 engine to dominate in Vmax .

And as the media war is something that can be talked about, Christian Horner attacked on another front in Texas, after the new demonstration of the W12 in a straight line, during free practice 1. The Englishman indeed pointed the suspension of the German single-seater.

“You are fed a lot of bullshit!”

“When we look at the back of their car, we see that it is sagging in a straight line, noted the English manager, on Sky Sports, in remarks taken up by GPblog.com. For him, it is obvious: the movement of the suspension serves to reduce the aerodynamic drag, thus increasing the Vmax.. Even though he observed that the suspension moved less than in Turkey, he got what he wanted by making his Austrian counterpart react. “These are great stories, but everyone is working on improving the suspension and haven’t been doing it for a long time, cut the parton of the seven-time reigning world champions. People think we have made an amazing discovery, but my experience shows that it is not. “

To know if the origin of the increased speed of the Mercedes could be due to new pneumatic return valves, Toto Wolff was scathing as rarely in front of his interlocutors of the British chain. “You are fed a lot of bullshit!, he got angry. But the questions are interesting. We don’t need to talk about pneumatic valves and stuff like that because you and I don’t get it! ” There you go, close the ban.

More seriously, and this is proof that Mercedes and Max Verstappen can still come together, Toto Wolff felt that the Mercedes was today better than the Red Bull not only in the straights, but also in the fast corners. What Max Verstappen corroborated by admitting that the Etoile firm did not draw its current strength from its engine, at least not only, but from a better operational job.

Without looking at all costs for the origin of Mercedes’ revival, it is certainly fair to say that Brackey has found a way to better optimize his W12, which is all the more worrying for Red Bull, whose machine is coming to the end of its life. development. After insisting on the fact that she would evolve her racing car throughout the year – we saw that it was true – Milton Keynes recognized for the first time in Austin that only marginal alterations would be made to his car by the Abu Dhabi final. Not enough to regain control.

“There is frustration, I know how he feels”

The fight will therefore perhaps end there on the subject of technical arguments. Everyone therefore left to do with what they have until the end, which seems to stress Max Verstappen. Annoyed by Lewis Hamilton’s overtaking maneuver on Friday during free practice 2, the Dutchman poured out vulgarity to signify his way of thinking about Lewis Hamilton. What did not fail to react. “They were on new tires, noted Jenson Button. It’s a bit of an agreement between pilots (editor’s note: to ride without overtaking while waiting to embark on a fast lap), but Lewis jumped inside. I don’t know if he was playing a game but it shook Max and he was very pissed off on the radio. It’s just a little bit of frustration going up. He didn’t attack his quick lap with this incident, then he had traffic two laps in a row. “

“There is frustration I know how he feels, continued the 2009 world champion, Lewis Hamilton’s teammate at McLaren from 2010 to 2012. It all depends on how we manage it. They (Red Bull) will probably sit down with him to calm him down so they can focus on Saturday. “

“I couldn’t take a quick tour. It was just a mess with the traffic, confirmed Max Verstappen. Who still has not understood the attitude of Lewis Hamilton. “We were side by side, I don’t understand what happened there”, he justified.

As a keen observer, Jenson Button felt that Max Verstappen had gone too far, despite understandable frustration, because Helmut Marko did not support his driver for once. “We’ve had this more than often this season. These two won’t go to dinner together – we don’t know that anyway – but it wasn’t necessary.” It is well summed up.

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