Damon Hill on Fernando Alonso’s comments about Verstappen: “Such nonsense”

It has become clear on several occasions in the past that Max Verstappen is not one of Damon Hill’s favourite drivers. After all, the 1996 world champion never missed an opportunity to criticise the four-time world champion and his driving style, which he described as aggressive. Particularly during his time as a Formula 1 pundit for the British pay-TV channel ‘Sky Sports F1’, he repeatedly stood out for his critical comments about Verstappen.

It will therefore come as little surprise to fans that the 65-year-old Briton has reacted negatively to the latest comments from F1 veteran Fernando Alonso regarding the Red Bull Racing star’s current World Championship situation. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper *Mundo Deportivo*, the two-time champion from Spain suggested that it was unfair that a driver like Max Verstappen would probably not be able to compete for the Drivers’ Championship title this year.

The Aston Martin star emphasised: “Max Verstappen is the best driver on the Formula 1 grid, and this year he’ll probably finish fifth or sixth. I don’t know if Formula 1 is perhaps a bit unfair in that respect.” And the 32-time Grand Prix winner added pointedly: “But there’s no point wasting time explaining that to people who don’t want to understand it at all.”

In the dominant Williams to the 1996 World Championship title

What Alonso meant by this is obvious: every Grand Prix star relies on a title-winning car if he wants to have a say in the battle for the world championship crown. Hill is likely to know this too, having made a total of 115 Grand Prix starts and claimed 22 Formula 1 race victories between 1992 and 1999.

The Grand Prix veteran responded clearly to Alonso’s statement in an Instagram Story. He wrote: “What nonsense. I completely disagree with Fernando Alonso on this.”

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Hill was reminded once again this weekend at the ‘Goodwood Festival of Speed’ just how good a title-winning car feels. To celebrate the 30th-year title anniversary, he took the wheel of the Williams FW18 – the car designed by Adrian Newey and Patrick Head that won 12 out of 16 races in 1996 and enabled him to claim the World Championship crown with eight victories.