08/09/2025 15:40
Damon Hill has described Max Verstappen as the "driver of this
age", after his previous fierce criticism of the Italian Grand Prix
winner. Verstappen returned to winning ways at Monza, with a first
win since Imola, defeating the all-conquering McLarens fair and
square, even before their late team orders snafu. 1996 champion
Hill had previously criticised Verstappen for his on-track driving
conduct after a pair of incidents with Lando Norris at the 2024
Mexico City Grand Prix, for which he earned 20 seconds of time
penalties and penalty points on his superlicence. For this, Hill
labelled Verstappen as "Dick Dastardly", referencing the iconic
villain from Wacky Races, but following the Monza win, Hill was
full of praise for Verstappen. Check out his tweet below, and the
article continues below. 1964702765600690327 I know I've been
critical of some of his passing and tactics, but there is not
getting away from the fact that Max Verstappen is the driver of
this age. He's a cut above in almost every respect. A phenomenon,
actually. Nice job this weekend Max 👏🏼👍🏻✌🏻 — Damon Hill (@HillF1)
September 7, 2025 McLaren drama Meanwhile, Hill also rounded on
McLaren's decision to impose team orders to instruct Oscar Piastri
to let Norris back through for second after a late slow pit-stop
for the latter. The decision, and Piastri's acceptance of it, led
to a six-point swing in the all-McLaren drivers' title fight, with
Norris cutting Piastri's lead to 31 points instead of it climbing
to 37. On this call, Hill referenced the 1993 Italian GP, where he
won after team-mate Alain Prost, romping to that year's title,
suffered an engine failure. 1964702255355179062 In 1993 I won the
Italian GP (in part 😉) because Alain Prost's Renault engine blew
up. I'm now worried Renault will ask me to give the result back to
him! 😬 What do you make of McLaren's policy of instructing a driver
to sacrifice a guaranteed result in favour of his rival? — Damon
Hill (@HillF1) September 7, 2025
