'Jealous' Lewis Hamilton faces retaliation from Max Verstappen for teammate comments

Max Verstappen has replied to comments made by Lewis Hamilton about his teammates by claiming that maybe the Mercedes driver is jealous. The Red Bull driver has been on a roll over the last couple of years. Ever since he won the title in 2021, the Dutchman has not looked back.

The 2022 F1 season was a season where Verstappen broke records for fun. After overcoming early-season challenges from Charles Leclerc and Ferrari, he cruised to the title and broke multiple records on the way.

Verstappen broke the record for the most wins in a season held by Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher. He then went on to break the record for most points in a season held by Lewis Hamilton.

Earlier in the weekend, Hamilton had commented on how he'd had stronger teammates in his career compared to Verstappen. When these comments were put forward to the Red Bull driver, he laughed it off by saying that Hamilton was jealous of his success and these comments are made to make the Brit feel better.

The Dutch driver told RacingNews365:

"Maybe he's a little jealous of my current success. This kind of statement... he possibly thinks he's winning something with that, but it makes no difference to me. I think Mercedes have a very hard time dealing with losing, after all these years of winning so much."

"At some point, you have to be realistic and then you have to be able to appreciate what other teams are doing. We did the same when they were dominant and we also said, 'We have to work harder because we are not good enough'. You can keep shouting and screaming that what we do is not that special... you just have to deal with yourself," Verstappen added.

What did Lewis Hamilton say about Max Verstappen's teammates?

Lewis Hamilton had a few choice words to say about Max Verstappen's teammates earlier in the weekend when he claimed that they were not as strong as what he had encountered in his career.

"When I qualified half a second, six-tenths ahead of Valtteri, they didn’t say the same thing as they say today when Max qualifies six-tenths ahead of Perez. It’s blown up much more. And in my personal opinion, Valtteri, and actually all of my team-mates, have been stronger than the team-mates that Max has had," the Brit told Sky Sports.

"Jenson [Button], Fernando [Alonso], George [Russell], Valtteri… Nico [Rosberg] – I’ve had so many. These guys have all been very consistent, and Max has not raced against anyone like that," he added.