Mercedes team boss Toto Wolf says this year’s Formula 1 title race could end in the same controversial fashion as the 1989 and 1990 championships.
Those two titles were decided by crashes between arch-rivals Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, as bad blood between the two boiled over into outright hostility.
Prost won the 1989 championship after colliding with his then-teammate Senna, while the Brazilian was the victor in 1990 after simply driving Prost off the road in Japan.
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The 1997 world title also ended in controversy, when Michael Schumacher tried, but failed, to eliminate Jacques Villeneuve at the last race. The Canadian won the title, while Schumacher was stripped of his second place.
Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have already had a number of run-ins in 2021, most notably at Silverstone and Monza.
At the British Grand Prix, Verstappen was taken to hospital after a 50G impact with the wall, while at the Italian race, the Red Bull car ended up on top of Hamilton’s Mercedes, albeit at relatively low speed.
Just 12 points separates the two drivers with five races remaining.
“If it was to come to the scenario of the last race in Abu Dhabi and they were to be racing each other for the title, whoever is in front is absolutely going to try to do the same as in the Senna-Prost years,” Wolff told the Daily Mail.
“What happened in Monza? Verstappen took Lewis out because he was about to overtake and he was quicker. And that is totally understandable. If you are racing for the championship and you see it fading away because the other guy is overtaking you, what tool have you got other than the one that makes sure he can’t overtake?
“We’ve seen it with Schumacher and Villeneuve, we saw it with Senna and Prost twice.”
Wolff conceded that once the drivers are on track there’s nothing the team can do to prevent an ugly end to the championship.
“I would never give the instruction to crash into anyone else but if they go to that last race and whoever is in front wins the championship, they will be racing each other, hard,” Wolff said.
“I don’t think you can control it, Hamilton and Verstappen, I don’t think you want to control it because they are the gladiators in their machines. That is what makes this sport so interesting, because it is ingrained in our nature that we don’t like confrontation and then one is intrigued to see how that relationship unfolds.
“If they crash are they going to confront each other? What are they going to say? Will they look in each others’ eyes? We would not interfere. The relationship is sorted out between the individuals.”
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