F1: Hamilton and his fans are sore losers – Verstappen

Max Verstappen believes people (in particular Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff) who continue to question the legitimacy of his maiden F1 title success are “sore losers”.

Red Bull’s punishment for breaking last year’s F1 cost cap is finally set to be revealed ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix on Friday, after an ‘Accepted Breach Agreement’ was reached with the FIA.

The Milton Keynes-based outfit were found guilty of a ‘minor breach’ of the $145m spending limit for 2021, which coincided with Verstappen’s first F1 title success.

“It’s a bit frustrating,” admitted Verstappen to some media Thursday in the Mexico City paddock.

“From our side we feel we are not wrong, but just some things are taken into the budget cap which are very unexpected.

“We’ll have to deal with it. But it’s also not up to me to decide what is right.”

As we outlined in this article, Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes brain trust ‘choked’ in Abu Dhabi last year by not making the split second decision to pit for fresh tires when Nicholas Latifi crashed. They assumed the race would remain under caution until the end, and it didn’t.  They played the odds wrong and lost.

They have been trying to deflect the blame for them choking ever since.  And they have done everything in their power to make Verstappen’s World Championship illegitimate and turned their fans against Verstappen and Red Bull.

The news of Red Bull’s cost cap breach has only fuelled more criticism from some F1 fans surrounding the circumstances of Verstappen’s 2021 world championship win.

But the Dutchman insists he is not bothered: “They are sore losers anyway, so it doesn’t matter what they say or what you do.

“I can brush it off. Probably they can’t, and they will never be able to, so that’s a problem for them to deal with.”

Asked about their possible punishment, Verstappen said: “We don’t know until the things are decided, but also these things I’m not involved with.”