Wolff on Hamilton and Verstappen duel: 'Like Senna and Prost'

Hamilton versus Verstappen

After the Italian Grand Prix, the Mercedes camp was already pointing their finger at Verstappen. According to the Germans, Verstappen crashed with Hamilton in Monza because it was his last resort. Although Wolff later admitted he didn't mean it that way, a new interview shows that this was the case. In fact, he now even says that Lewis would do the same.

''If it was to come to the scenario of the last race in Abu Dhabi, and they were to be racing each other for the title, whoever is in front is absolutely going to try to do the same as in the Senna-Prost years,'' Wolff said to Mail+. The Mercedes team boss is referring to the battle between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.

No punishment for the crash

''What happened in Monza? Verstappen took Lewis out, because he was about to overtake and he was quicker. And that is totally understandable. If you are racing for the championship and you see it fading away because the other guy is overtaking you, what other tool have you got other than the one that makes sure he can’t overtake? We’ve seen it with Schumacher and Villeneuve, we saw it with Senna and Prost twice.''

According to Wolff, these kinds of 'deliberate' actions are therefore unavoidable. ''I don’t think you can control it, I don’t think you want to control it because they are the gladiators in their machines. You wouldn’t want to have calmed the gladiators in the arena 2,000 years ago. We will not interfere,'' the Austrian concludes. That last statement is somewhat striking, given that Mercedes did want a penalty when Verstappen and Hamilton crashed into each other at Monza.