2021 - Race 14 Itallian GP at Monza

[Average Sim Racer]

No that is not the point you were making. You were attacking the victim of the crash. There is hard racing and there is sheer recklessness. And what we saw on sunday at the Italian grandprix was reckless by Verstappen. And you have to be very biased not to see it as it was.

I don't take kindly to being lied about or victim-shaming.

The recklessness from Verstappen is no worse than the recklessness from Hamilton, especially at a similar age. That was the point. That was not denying recklessness. I'm not prepared to argue. My position is clear as is my conscience.

I feel it is a racing incident given the stewards' previous rulings and track limits and two drivers unwilling to compromise and both being reckless. I would have to be biased from previous poor decisions to want to penalise an over-taking driver.

I already stated in my opinion it is a different kettle of fish to blame an over-taking driver with momentum for being squeezed into a sausage kerb by a slower car with new tyres coming from the pit lane. The car coming from the pits has to be extra careful in that situation as they are the one re-joining the race track and causing the obstacle at a tight corner with a hazard off-track.

I feel no differently to this than the racing incident of Bottas and Russell in which again Russell was blamed as the over-taking driver despite Bottas being slower and purposefully discarding his line in poor conditions and forcing Russell dangerously off track with a careless blocking move to the right under breaking.

My genuine position is the car in front has more responsibility to leave space at tight over-taking corners and the FIA are not caring about protecting the line of the over-taking driver.

If you are arguing that it is reckless to over-take when there is no clear and obvious gap then Hamilton ought to have been black flagged and had grid places dropped for Silverstone, with Mercedes paying for the damages to Red Bull's car.

In this incident Mercedes have a point to raise with the FIA about sausage kerbs ruining their car unfairly and endangering their driver.

If you argue Max has a responsibility to not go over the sausage kerb then in my opinion you also have to argue Lewis has a responsibility to respect the sausage kerb as a dangerous track limit for Max.

Lewis has had decisions in the past at Monza, for example when Leclerc pushed him off track and got a warning, but the difference is it wasn't in the wet or with sausage kerbs so it wasn't as reckless as when the Mercedes cars have done it recently.

Again, I am not denying the recklessness or victim shaming. I am recognising the scale of danger in context. Bottas and Lewis deserved warnings, perhaps more for being reckless in defensive situations where there was even more danger off-track than what Leclerc did.