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The consensus from the Formula 1 field may have been that Friday’s drivers’ briefing gave them no clarity on racing ethics following the controversy over Max Verstappen’s Brazilian Grand Prix defence, but Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas gave a firm hint they’ll be making themselves similarly hard to pass from now on.
Verstappen running Hamilton wide at Interlagos’ Descida do Lago turn as the Mercedes made its first bid to take the lead last week was not investigated by the race stewards, and Mercedes’ request for a review of that decision once new onboard camera footage was available was dismissed.
Hamilton was among those who felt Friday night’s discussion with FIA race director Michael Masi left drivers in the dark about what was now permitted.
“Every driver, except for Max, was asking just for clarity, most drivers were asking for clarity, but it wasn’t very clear,” he said.
But he intimated he had drawn his own conclusion from that.
When asked what his mindset about how to race someone side by side in this weekend’s Qatar GP would be, Hamilton replied: “Then what’s happened in the last race is OK”.
Team-mate Bottas agreed, saying: “It is clear in that way that, if it’s a similar incident to Brazil, then that’s OK – but obviously it’s always a fine line.”
Bottas felt the discussion with Masi had provided “at least 20% of a confirmation” that running a driver out wide when they attack on the outside is within the regulations.
Some drivers’ and teams’ criticism of the handling of the Verstappen Brazil case has been from the perspective that it was simply unfair racing, while others have focused more on the inconsistency of the ruling given the penalties given to Sergio Perez and Lando Norris for ostensibly similar driving in Austria earlier this year.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, perhaps unsurprisingly, is among those arguing the door has been opened to rougher racing.
“In my opinion what it says is just launch yourself into a corner and wreck the other car out of the line,” he told Sky.
“And that obviously can lead to quite some dirtier driving going forward.
“What I said to some of the stakeholders is we don’t want to have a messy situation tomorrow, in Saudi Arabia or Abu Dhabi because that would be really bad.”
The opposite opinion, as – inevitably – expressed by Wolff’s Red Bull counterpart Christian Horner is that the situation is “exactly the same as it has been for the last few years” and that Verstappen wasn’t investigated or penalised because his driving was perfectly legitimate.
But it’s not just the Red Bull camp arguing that nothing has changed in this furore.
Ferrari sporting director Laurent Mekies doubts his drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz will be rethinking their wheel to wheel approach.
“I don’t think they will go in a very different way compared to what has been done in the past,” he said on Saturday.
“It’s always going to be difficult when cars are side by side for anybody to judge it and to find out whether it’s on the line or too much.
“I don’t think they will have second thoughts about how to go about it compared to what they were doing until yesterday.”
