Did match fixing give Max Verstappen the win? Former Dutch F1 driver thinks so...
F1 News
*Put on a tin foil hat* Formula 1 was perhaps the real winner after an exciting Austrian Grand Prix. Max Verstappen clinched victory for the second year running around the Red Bull Ring. But with the three hours waiting time for the stewards, you might wonder if it came too easily. This is a view which Michael Bleekemolen, a former Dutch F1 driver holds.
"I find it a bit strange what's going on," the former F1 driver starts his view in conversation with Peter van Drunen from DAZN. “I just wanted to find the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix a few years ago. We had a period in Formula 1 when Mercedes was so incredibly dominant. At that time there was also such a deadline: 'If it doesn't change now ...'. That was also the case in Austria."
“In that fragment (Hungary) you see that Rosberg and Hamilton do not defend themselves in the first corner, they just let a few people go. Then I already thought: 'Has it been said from above that they should take it slower?' Maybe I suggest things that are not true at all, but I think they smell match-fixing, yes."
"I think it's weird. It is, of course, easy: You switch a button and it all goes a bit less. Still hard, but it just happened. Mercedes suddenly has to work for it again and Ferrari takes the lead."
Despite all of this, Bleekemolen still gives respect for his fellow countryman for the skills he put on show.
“Nothing to the detriment of Max Verstappen: What he did was just incredibly good. If these were equivalent cars, something that I assume, you will see how good Max is," Bleekemolen added.