Whitmarsh: “Hamilton should have had a different approach with Maldonado”

Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren team principal, defends Lewis Hamilton after the accident with Pastor Maldonado which forced him to retire with two laps to go in the European GP.

For the English manager, if the clash was essentially the Venezuelan's fault, it is also true that Hamilton could have left more space, knowing the excessive determination of the Williams driver. The accident occurred at turn 13 of the Valencia track. Hamilton, in a serious crisis, had recently been passed by Kimi Raikkonen and Maldonado wanted to grab third place, taking advantage of the McLaren driver's now destroyed tire problems. The Venezuelan joined Hamilton on the outside, who resisted by pushing his rival onto the curb: subsequent contact between the two was inevitable, even if it is difficult to establish who was responsible. In fact, Hamilton was the victim of his usual lack of clarity in the hottest moments, as it would not have made much difference to finish third or fourth, unlike what Fernando Alonso did in Canada when he found himself in a similar situation and let himself pass without almost fighting and without taking risks from the fastest opponents. On the other hand, Maldonado is certainly a good driver but at the end of the race, when he has to remain cool, he lets himself be caught up in the most destructive impetuosity. It happened a few months ago in Australia and also in China he risked a lot with overtaking at the limit always at the end.

“Obviously not, it wasn't necessary for Lewis to defend himself so harshly in Valencia, but you're dragging me into controversy”, Whitmarsh explained to the English periodical Autosport. “You saw how he defended himself with Grosjean and with Raikkonen and he didn't do anything different with Maldonado. It was a different outcome of the duel, but he didn't do anything different compared to his usual behavior on the track. My opinion is that Maldonado is to blame and he is deeply frustrating, but he is a racing driver and this happens. I'm sure that in hindsight you could say that when you have to fight with a person like that you have to take a different approach, but you can't think of that in advance.", concluded the McLaren boss. Due to this retirement, Hamilton lost the leadership of the Drivers' World Championship and is now third and 23 points behind Fernando Alonso.

Lorena Bianchi