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Max Verstappen says Formula 1 rival Lewis Hamilton’s claim that Verstappen may be affected by the particular pressure of a first F1 title battle “shows that he doesn’t really know me”.
Verstappen and Hamilton, already talking about each other more than ever this season due to the close nature of their title contest, have faced a barrage of questions following their Monza collision – the second big clash between the duo in 2021.
In his pre-Russian GP media appearances on Thursday, Hamilton made several references to Verstappen being in his first title contest and potentially feeling extra pressure from it, albeit prefacing it with: “Obviously he won’t admit to it, and I’m not going to make an assumption.”
He went on to say that he “empathised” with Verstappen based on his own experience from back in 2007.
When Verstappen was told of Hamilton’s words and asked to respond, he said in a deadpan tone: “Yeah, I’m so nervous I can barely sleep.
“I mean, it’s so horrible, to fight for a title. I really hate it. Yeah.”
He then added: “No, I think if someone knows me, I think I’m very relaxed about all those things and I really can’t be bothered, I’m very chilled.
“It’s the best feeling ever to have a car, a great car, where you go into every weekend and then you can fight for a win. It doesn’t matter if you’re just leading a championship or not.
“I think, those comments, I mean, it just shows you that he [Hamilton] really doesn’t know me – which is fine, I mean I also don’t need to know him, how he is, fully.
“I just focus on myself, and I really enjoy it out there out front, and hopefully of course we can do that for a very long time.”
Verstappen heads into the Sochi race with a five-point advantage over Hamilton, but facing a three-place grid penalty for the Monza crash – a penalty he says he was “surprised” by.
Asked whether he would consider changing what is perceived as a no-compromise approach to racing Hamilton in light of the two crashes, he said: “I think it goes both ways, doesn’t it? It’s not only me [involved] when we are racing each other.”
And when quizzed whether the season-long duel risked becoming more ‘nasty’, he said: “Not from my side, I’m pretty calm and chilled about everything. It’s more the questions I keep getting about it.
“I think we’re all professional enough to leave this behind in Monza and just continue again here in Sochi, and the races after that.”
