Kimi Raikkonen reacted to Max Verstappen's on-track tactics and strong words off it by saying that Formula One is not the right sport to seek “payback”.
The Ferrari man was left frustrated with the Red Bull racer in Spa last weekend after colliding with him and team-mate Sebastian Vettel at the start. The Finn was further infuriated with Verstappen's defending following yet another high-octane duel with the Dutchman
Speaking in the aftermath of the race, Verstappen claimed that both Raikkonen and Vettel “should be ashamed” of criticising his driving and confessed that he had made their races harder after he felt the Ferrari duo “screwed up” his.
“Everybody is allowed to say what they feel like,” Raikkonen said of the 18-year-old's forceful statement in Thursday’s FIA press conference at Monza. “I have nothing personal against him but certain things are not correct.”
"I have not much interest to go much into it. If somebody says that during the race he does something because of what happened at first corner, that it is payback, I don't think it is the correct sport to be purposefully paying back some things that has happened.
"It can end up in a very bad way. Yes, people make mistakes, everybody has made it and it will happen to all of us. You just have to accept it. But [this is] not the place to start acting silly in a way and paying back something.”
Vettel: ‘We should always have the respect’
Having promised to talk to Verstappen after the Belgian GP, Vettel admits he has not had the opportunity to clear the air with the teenager but states that drivers should always respect each other.
“I don’t think we have anything to be ashamed about,” the German said. “It’s a question of respect. We’re all here to race. We love what we do. We share one big passion, which dictates a very big part of our lives. It’s something we all have in common. We might get along, we might not. It’s not really that important. But we should always have the respect.
“I have not spoken to [Max] yet. I think the thing that we’ve spoken about before and has come up again is the moving under braking, which obviously as the lead car is the wrong thing to do. The following car can react but there are situations where you can’t and that would end up in a crash, which is something we spoke about.
“I thought he had understood when we talked about it, so maybe we need to have another chat but... I am not a big fan of running to the stewards and complain there. I think it’s much fairer to do that face-to-face. Unfortunately I have not done that yet.”
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2016 Italian Grand Prix preview
Scene at the 2016 Belgian Grand Prix
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