The dust still hasn’t settled on the dramatic goings-on at Silverstone during the British Grand Prix and it probably won’t have done so by the time the teams descend upon Hungary for the next race. Needless to say, there’s an awful lot of bad blood in the air after Red Bull accused Lewis Hamilton of intentionally trying to take Max Verstappen out of the race after the two drivers got into a tangle at Copse Corner.
Verstappen would end up careering into the tires as Hamilton rode off into the distance to win his home GP. This means that Hamilton was able to close the gap to just eight points behind Verstappen and, in the process, put himself back into the mix to win the Drivers’ Championship. Indeed, anyone betting on sports will see that Hamilton’s odds in the F1 market have dropped to just +150 after the Silverstone GP, which signals a dramatic change in the pricing.
So, after everything that has gone on over the last race, what happens next?
It’s hard to say for sure but the best bit of advice to racing fans would have to be: strap yourself in because things are about to get intense and perhaps even ugly. Indeed, the fallout from Hamilton’s Silverstone win is going to ensure that temperatures are at an all-time high for the remainder of the season.
Worryingly, the pressure that Red Bull will feel after Silverstone could filter down from the likes of team principal, Christian Horner, and onto the drivers. Horner is naturally desperate to win another Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship given that Red Bull has gone eight years without registering one, with their last coming in 2013.
It will feel, to some extent, that the dark arts have been used to derail that dream of getting back on top, which is why the rhetoric around the team meetings may change to a slightly more aggressive one. That tone may be evident in the way that Verstappen and Sergio Perez go about their business in the races to come.
With that being said, and this is a crucial point, Verstappen isn’t the type of individual that needs any sort of encouragement as far as getting fired up goes. The Dutchman is naturally quite an aggressive driver at the best of times so what happens when he feels like he has been hard done by is anyone’s guess.
Realistically, there is every chance that we will see another collision involving the two drivers going forward, which won’t do either of them any good. Ultimately, winning the F1 title will come down to who can avoid getting caught up in the hostilities and focus on purely driving.
That’s probably easier said than done, but top speeds of 360kph and a desire to get even is a recipe for disaster. In many ways, you almost want to look away now given how tense this fight is going to become. Indeed, all the elements are there, anger, revenge, and volatility, but this is what F1 has been crying out for.
So, instead of averting one’s eyes, drink it all in.