Max Verstappen will bring about a “massive accident sooner or later” on the off chance that he doesn’t change his driving strategies, Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen says.
Raikkonen was irate after an occurrence amid Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix, the most recent of a progression of discussions identified with the Dutchman’s driving.
The Finn said: “If I had not braked, we would have had a massive accident.
“It will happen sooner or later if this doesn’t change. I am fine with good, hard racing but that is not correct.”
Raikkonen swore over the radio due to a strategy Red Bull’s Verstappen has embraced more than once this year, which is to drive amidst the track and just make a protective move finally when he sees which way the driver assaulting is coming.
Verstappen, Raikkonen and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel crashed at the principal corner of the race, with every one of the three autos enduring harm, yet it was an episode on the Kemmel straight later in the race that rankled the Finn.
“Other guys defend but they do it correctly,” Raikkonen said. “He waits and waits and turns after me and I have to brake and slow down. It is not exactly what should happen.
“Maybe it needs an accident before it makes it more clear to everybody but hopefully not because it can be bad for someone. Nobody wants to see anybody get hurt.
“Something is not correct in my view, but the stewards have a different opinion”
Verstappen rejected proposals he expected to reevaluate his strategies.
“To be honest, it’s a big lie,” the 18-year-old said. “I’m just defending my position and if somebody doesn’t like it, it’s his own problem.”
He included that Raikkonen and Vettel ought to be “ashamed” of censuring him and blamed them for creating the main corner crash between the three that harmed every one of their autos.
“If they screw up my race, I’m not going to make it easy for them,” he said. “I think they should understand that.
“I’m not going to say: ‘come on through’. But all that happened after turn one. If turn one hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have been so aggressive and pushed Raikkonen out like that.”
Verstappen’s team boss Christian Horner said: “It was firm, it was on the edge. He got away with it. I’m sure he’ll have a good look at it and maybe learn a bit for future races.”
Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff said Verstappen’s driving was “refreshing but it’s dangerous”.
“He comes in here no fear, no respect, puts the elbows out,” Wolff said.
“He reminds me of the great ones, of Lewis [Hamilton], of Ayrton Senna and you can clearly see some guys around are starting to think twice how to overtake him.
“Until now, all that has proven he is on the right track. The FIA has not penalised him. The only thing that has happened is that he was being given a hard time in some driver briefing.
“Maybe he is going to get a harder time in the next driver briefing. I just fear it might end up in the wall heavily one day.”
Raikkonen’s colleague Sebastian Vettel, who had his own on-the-edge tussle with Verstappen amid the race, said he would attempt to “educate” the Red Bull driver.
“I am not a fan of penalising people,” the four-time world champion said. “We need talk to each other and have respect.
“There have been a couple of manoeuvres that the rest of the field is not happy with his behaviour.
“The best way to educate is just to talk rather than create a fuss in the media. We are men.”
