Britain’s Jenson Button has criticised Max Verstappen for his defending at the Hungarian grand prix from Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen during the closing stages of the race.
Verstappen’s aggressive defending has come under max scrutiny as many have felt that the manner in which the Red Bull youngster drove, is a formula one “no-no”.
Kimi Raikkonen was unhappy as he chased down 5th position, referring to Max’s driving as “not correct”.
Speaking at Hockenheim, Jenson agreed with Raikkonen’s criticism.
“As drivers, we all know that moving in the braking zone is the most dangerous thing you can do – because the guy [behind] is going at 300km/h and he probably hasn’t hit the brakes yet,” Button said.
“So, yeah, moving is a no-no and he [Verstappen] obviously did move in the braking zone. I can understand Kimi’s frustration.”
Reacting to the allegation that all the drivers on the grid have been equally aggressive in junior categories Jenson said: “You’re also doing 100mph, you’re not doing 220mph.
“It doesn’t mean it’s right that you do it in junior formulae, we’re trying to stamp it out, lead by example. And if we’re doing it, everyone else is going to do it in junior formulae, there’s going to be more incidents of cars flying.
“It’s not right to say ‘well, you did it’. Of course, I probably did do it, but it wasn’t right to do it. You learn – and at 330km into Turn 1, moving in the braking zone, it’s the worst thing you can do, because cars fly.
“Moving in the braking zone is not racing, it’s dangerous.”
Jenson was asked if this thinking was a firmer directive that has come about recently, to which he said: “The whole time I’ve been racing in F1, you don’t move in the braking zone, because that’s when you have big accidents.
It wasn’t Esteban’s [Gutierrez] fault in Melbourne, but you look at the accident that Fernando [Alonso] had, are you happy seeing accidents like that?
“Max is an unbelievable talent in terms of what he’s achieved at such a young age, he’s doing a great job – but obviously there are always things we can learn from as drivers, we can all learn. It needs to be a bit clearer cut.”
Besides the yellow flag topic of Budapest, it appears to be a nailed on certainty that Max’s track behaviour will be discussed in the driers briefing at Hockenheim. A fly on the wall?
Not everybody let’s cars pass by so easily as Button.
Only a couple years to go and Button can watch F1 from the couch!
Strange that there isn’t a fleet of the Dutch army defending young max here.
He was weaving all over the place last week, no doubt. He should learn some respect, or he will learn the hard way guaranteed.
I’m dutch. Mostly curious about the enormous criticism Max is getting. I’m not a pro, if all drivers agree it’s extremely dangerous, well, if that is the only reason for their fierce criticism, the rules should be changed. But as Max replied; why give it away for free? Why do all drivers come out and hit him, that’s the question. Hard to except a new guy flying up there with no humble feelings for the old heroes? I guess so…
Jenson and Kimi are exremely frustrated with their own results whilst Max is the rising star who is getting all the media attention. They feel the threat (Lewis already admitted this publicly) and that is difficult to swallow if you are a former champion not living up to your fans expectations … and, who knows, your team’s expectations. By criticizing Max for his unique driving style (talent Martin Brundle would say) they try to muddy the waters and to hide their underperformance (compared to the youngster). Very unpleasant if you ask me.