Mercedes Chief Communications Officer Bradley Lord said the team regrets its response to Lewis Hamilton’s clash with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the 2021 Formula 1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
Hamilton and Verstappen were embroiled in an intense title fight that year and things went up a dramatic notch at Silverstone.
Wheel-to-wheel on the opening lap, the pair clashed at Copse corner and Verstappen was sent careening into the barriers, suffering a 51G impact but luckily escaping serious injury.
However, the Dutchman was knocked out briefly and sent to hospital as a precautionary measure.
Hamilton meanwhile, recovered his damaged car to the pits, which was repaired during a red flag period to allow him to mount a comeback victory after being penalised for the Verstappen incident.
Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner and Advisor Helmut Marko were critical of Mercedes and Hamilton’s jubilation post-victory and their apparent lack of concern for Verstappen’s well-being.
A right of review was launched by Red Bull but was later dismissed and Mercedes responded with the following statement: “We hope that this decision will mark the end of a concerted attempt by the senior management of Red Bull Racing to tarnish the good name and sporting integrity of Lewis Hamilton.”
Why Lord wishes Mercedes handled Silverstone 2021 differently
There were further clashes on track between Hamilton and Verstappen post-Silverstone in 2021 and the rivalry between the two teams became very public and heated.
Looking back on the incident with PlanetF1, Lord wishes things were handled differently.
“If we were to talk something we regret, I think, having taken the word of a member of the Red Bull team – and therefore taken a little for granted – Max’s condition after his shunt at Silverstone in 2021,” he said.
“I think how we were perceived to handle that aftermath was a point at which that relationship in that season soured quite dramatically.
“We could have handled that in a different way that would have been more reflective of the concern we had for Max’s well-being at that point in time, regardless of our view of the incident and the rights and wrongs of it.”
Another product of the crash was the animosity generated between fan bases on social media, which remains to this day and has contributed to Lord’s regret.
“There was that side of things, and then to have, albeit unintentionally, antagonised the relationship, and the relationship with the fan bases in quite an extreme a way as it happened,” he said.
“That’s probably the moment. If we could go back in time and change it, I think we would change our responses and what we did at that point in time, around that afternoon.”
Mercedes handled Abu Dhabi 2021 better than Silverstone
The heated title fight in 2021 raged on until the final lap at the season-ending Abu Dhabi GP.
As has been well documented, a controversial safety car call rewarded a savvy late pit-stopping Verstappen with just one car ahead of him – Hamilton – on his path to championship glory as opposed to having to navigate lapped traffic.
The fan debate over this incident will rage on for many years to come, but whatever way you see it, Mercedes and Hamilton were devastated by the title loss by a means with which they felt was wrong.
Lord, however, unlike the Silverstone incident, was happy with the way the team handled communications in the aftermath of Abu Dhabi 2021.
“I look back on Abu Dhabi 2021 and how we handled the aftermath of that and, actually, the decision to say nothing and to not communicate was, hopefully, a powerful and elegant way to handle such a difficult situation where no words would have been sufficient to express how we were feeling,” he said.
In addition, keeping Nico Rosberg’s retirement announcement amid his 2016 title victory a secret was another communications challenge that Lord was proud of.
“Another highlight was Nico’s retirement,” he said.
“Being in a room where you knew a bombshell was about to land and no one in the room had a clue that it was coming.
“That was a really memorable moment,” Lord continued.
“It’s rare in our sport that you have a story that doesn’t leak beforehand. That was one of the few occasions where we had something that hadn’t gone anywhere, and when he announced his retirement, that was a real shock for those in the room, without it being telegraphed beforehand in any way.
“So that was an interesting thing to observe and to be part of. Crafting those press releases late the night before, after he told us that news – that was a fun time as well.”
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