Max Verstappen has come out ahead of the Hungarian GP and said that will not be intimidated by the fact that Lewis Hamilton tried to counter his aggressive brand of racing which resulted in him crashing out of the British GP. The crash meant that Hamilton had cut down Verstappen's lead in the driver's championship to just 8 points after it had surged to beyond 30 points.
"I don't get intimidated. I don't pay any attention to mind games. These things don't bother me. I just focus on the track in the best way possible. Anything beyond that is not relevant to me. But I don't want to make any predictions about the season. It is difficult to call. So many things come into it," he told the Daily Mail.
Verstappen reiterated that he shared a mutual respect for Hamilton but also made some snide remarks about Hamilton's lifestyle and public persona.
"There's mutual respect. It's just that we live different lives, so that limits how much we could meet away from the track anyway," said the flying Dutchman.
Verstappen collided with Hamilton which resulted in a 51G crash
"I wouldn't hang out with celebs just for my profile. With some well-known people you can strike a good connection and build up a friendship, but I would only meet those I think are friends. I won't call them mates when they are not mates, but just famous people. I want to spend time with family and real friends," said Verstappen talking of the differences between him and Hamilton.
"I don't spend too much time checking my Twitter or Instagram accounts to see how many followers I have, or worry about how many 'likes' my posts get. I am not interested in that. If I am in Holland, which is not often, I mostly stay in the house, again with family and friends," he added.
Verstappen was seen racing in the iRacing 24 hours of Spa recently which was an online race. He was having some issues with his cats disrupting him while on the simulator and had some more banter against the driver/boss duo of Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff.
"I hope the cat doesn't jump behind my brake pedal because it will become a pancake," he said. When asked the names of his cats, he replied, "Jimmy and Sassy" before snakily adding "Lewis and Toto" may be more appropriate these days.
