‘Mind your own business’ is what a lot of stakeholders within the Formula 1 world need to do. Max Verstappen wholly believes this statement and lives by it. And so did Lewis Hamilton. But that has changed. As the Italian GP weekend began, so did Hamilton’s psychological warfare against the Dutchman. He tried to undermine Verstappen’s championship wins. But the Red Bull racer hasn’t kept quiet after these wicked jabs were directed at him.

On Friday at Monza, in a press conference, Hamilton was speaking about Verstappen and his period of dominance. Midway through his answer, he made a comment that was uncalled for. The 7x champion put his wins on a pedestal while rubbishing Verstappen’s victories. And what was his reason? Hamilton felt that the reigning World Champion has never had teammates of the caliber that he had to face. Now that’s a rather unnecessary statement to hear. Especially from Lewis Hamilton who usually doesn’t openly attack others in interviews.

But now that this attacking statement was made, Verstappen addressed it and struck back at his arch-nemesis. Speaking to Telegraaf, “You can keep shouting and screaming that it’s not all that special what we all do, or that tone has a bit. Maybe they don’t always say that, but they do. While you just have to deal with yourself. That’s the only thing you have influence on. I don’t need things like this.”

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If you think this is where the Dutchman stopped, well, he didn’t. He went as far as to call the Mercedes racer a “jealous” man.

Max Verstappen doubles down to silence “Jealous” Lewis Hamilton

To be very straightforward, next to nothing is going right for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes since their 2021 loss to Max Verstappen and Red Bull. Since the W14 isn’t getting any better, the Briton has resorted to increasing the intensity of the mind games in a bid to get the Dutchman rattled. But if you dish out provocative statements, the boomerang is bound to come back.

“Perhaps Lewis is a little jealous of my current success,” Verstappen told de Telegraaf. “He may think he gains something with that, with statements like that, but it doesn’t matter to me. I think it’s very hard to deal with a loss at Mercedes after all these years of winning so much.”

Along with the war on the racetrack, Verstappen is now winning the war of words as well. Maybe it’s time for Hamilton to focus more on extracting performance from his car than taking the undesired path to victory.

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