Lewis Hamilton tried to take advantage of "vulnerable" Max Verstappen in a post-race conversation after the Canadian Grand Prix, claims Daniel Ricciardo.
The Aussie was in Montreal to host an alternative broadcast of the Formula 1 race. He and actor Will Arnett were commenting on everything that fans could see on the TV feed.
And that included the cool down room minutes after the end of the race. Verstappen was already in there, waiting for the podium ceremony after securing yet another victory.
He was alone with Hamilton when the Brit entered. And the Mercedes driver wasted little time before asking questions about the Dutchman's Red Bull car.
"Was your car stiff? Did it bounce a lot?" asked Hamilton. Verstappen replied: "Yeah. I mean, the track is also very bumpy," but his F1 rival immediately came back with another question about tyre degradation.
Verstappen said: "It's quite high here, yeah. Especially at turns three and four when you try to ride the kerbs. It's very hard with these cars." He then asked Hamilton: "You had a good last stint? Initially it really kicked on, compared to the first medium, right?"
And Hamilton replied: "Yeah, it was a bit better, like. Pretty decent. Yeah, we struggled in the first stint, we struggle in the low-speed corners. That's where you were just destroying me, out of the low-speed. Actually, pretty much all of them – your rear end is insane."
Despite that admission of the Red Bull car's superiority from Hamilton, Ricciardo thinks the Brit might have been up to no good. Walking into that room to see Verstappen there still recovering from the race, he thinks the Mercedes man might have been trying to pry information out of the Red Bull racer.
"It's interesting you know," the Australian, a Red Bull reserve for this season, told Arnett. "I see it as Lewis has gone up to him thinking he's vulnerable and might let his guard down and try and get some information about the car and give it back to the team."
Verstappen, though, remained tight-lipped. Ricciardo added: "But Max wasn't giving him too much. It was all very blasé. I've been in those rooms enough times to know you've still got to be on it and not get complacent."
