F1 Legend Jacky Stewart Believes Verstappen Could Have Died In The British GP Crash

The former triple world champion also applauded Esteban Ocon's maiden win with the Alpine and called Lewis Hamilton a very lucky boy to finish P2.

By Sahil Gupta

1 mins read

Published on August 4, 2021

Highlights

Red Bull an appeal to review Hamilton's penalty after the British GP
Stewart who has often critiqued Hamilton, said Verstappen couldve died
He also claimed that Hamilton was lucky to get the P2 at Hungary

Sir Jacky Stewart hasn't been the biggest Lewis Hamilton fan in recent years and now he has come out again criticising the Briton. This time around the legendary F1 driver and former world champion has claimed that Hamilton's crash with Verstappen would've cost the Dutchman his life if they were racing in the 70s. He claimed the drivers were taking too many chances. "Frankly, if that had been in my day and well after my day, Verstappen would've been killed. The race track has been made so safe, the run-off areas so big, and the structures that he (Verstappen) finally came to a stop on and even then the g-forces were enormous. I think that was a great example of what Silverstone has done to make the track safer. However, people are taking more liberties today than they were before because the penalties are not so large... now it's so safe that I think people are taking too many chances," he said. "The early laps at Silverstone was a good example of that because I think both drivers were overdriving, particularly when you think about it is only the beginning of the race. We've got to readdress that and sadly it sometimes takes a big, big action or even a life to make that come to real understanding," he added. The former 3-time world champion has expressed concerns about driver safety The former triple world champion also applauded Esteban Ocon's maiden win with the Alpine and called Lewis Hamilton a very lucky boy to finish P2. "It was a very unusual race. It was hardly representative of what would have been the case under normal circumstances. It was great to see the way Renault (Alpine) got the victory which they've been looking forward to for far too long. I think Lewis was a very lucky boy to finish second under the circumstances but Mercedes do a good job and he drives it extremely well," he said. "The Aston Martin team must be hurting from it from coming second and on the podium to being disqualified," he explained.