F1 News

Damon Hill calls Lewis Hamilton's driving naughty

Not just Verstappen under fire: Hill calls Hamilton's driving "naughty"

31 October at 15:23

Since the Mexican Grand Prix, a lot of the attention and focus within the Formula 1 world has been placed on Max Verstappen and his aggressive driving. The Dutchman received a lot of criticism for his actions in the race in Mexico City, which saw him pick up two ten-second penalties. But he's not the only driver to get some heat as Damon Hill has described Hamilton's actions against his teammate as "naughty".

Hamilton and Russell met each other on track during the Mexican Grand Prix. Mercedes were far enough ahead of Verstappen and the drivers raced against each other. This included an interesting action at turn one where Hamilton changed directly sharply to defend his position against Russell.

Hamilton's actions are described as naughty

In a wider debate about the stewards and their decision, Hill spoke on the Sky Sports podcast about adding ex-drivers to the panel. This includes his former Sky colleague Johnny Hebert, who was a steward in Mexico and will be again in Brazil.

"Drivers were originally brought in to help stewards make decisions on driving issues which they had very little experience or knowledge of. The idea was to bring in drivers who had raced at that level and were able to say: 'When I look at that, I think it's right or wrong'. Those drivers who were enlisted to help the stewards became stewards themselves so now they're bound by all the other regulations and jobs the stewards have," Hill explained.

"They are now just the same as the other stewards. If it was just a driver looking at that, say Martin Brundle, they would say: 'No, that's not right'. We can apply that to Lewis' late change of direction when he was being passed by George. I have to say, I saw that and I thought it was a little bit naughty," Hill added.

Both drivers were happy with the racing, with Russell explaining it was nice to have a battle with Hamilton because he knew it would be "nice and fair". Mercedes are hoping to learn more about their updates this weekend in Brazil.