"They’ve proved me wrong"- Lewis Hamilton withdraws his comments calling Red Bull a "drinks company"

Back when Lewis Hamilton was driving for McLaren in the 2011 season, he had made comments about Red Bull simply being a "drinks company" rather than a serious car manufacturer, but the seven-time world champion now admits that he has been proven wrong.

As reported by RaceFans, Lewis Hamilton confessed that over time, Red Bull Racing have managed to do a "great job" with their cars:

“I think the team, it is a great team. They’ve generally had really great cars for some time. I think that they used to have really high ride heights and had more drag before. I think they realized and experienced this year that their engine actually isn’t slower than others, it was more that they had a lot more drag in previous years. They’ve done a fantastic job. Anything I would have said in the past about the team I didn’t mean it in a negative way. I think years ago I said something about them being a drinks company and stuff like that, and it was really just highlighting that car manufacturers, you would bet on a car manufacturer, more so. But they’ve proved me wrong and everyone and they’ve done a great job.”

Giving credit to Red Bull Racing's Chief Technology Officer Adrian Newey, the Briton added:

“Adrian obviously did his thesis on ground effect cars at university so it’s no surprise that what he’s done and created this year is impressive. But I believe in the young guns in our team that we’ll catch up.”

Here are Lewis Hamilton's comments from 2011:

“Red Bull are not a manufacturer, they are a drinks company. It’s a drinks company versus McLaren, Ferrari history. I don’t know what their plan is. Our team is building to become a bigger manufacturer, like Ferrari, and I can only see our team being there for a ridiculous amount of time. It is a pure-bred racing team.”

Between 2010 and 2013, Sebastian Vettel secured four consecutive world championship titles for Red Bull. Since then, Max Verstappen took his maiden title for the team last season and currently leads the 2022 Championship.

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Fernando Alonso apologizes for calling Lewis Hamilton "an idiot"

After Lewis Hamilton made contact with Fernando Alonso on the opening lap of the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix last weekend, the Spaniard was heard giving a rather heated comment on the team radio, where he called the Mercedes driver "an idiot." However, he has now apologized for the same.

As reported by The Guardian, the two-time world champion said:

“When you say something against a British driver, there is a huge media involvement after that but anyway, yes I apologize. I’m not thinking what I said. The heat of the moment, the adrenaline of the moment, fighting finally for the top two, top three made me say those comments that I should not say.”

Criticizing F1 for broadcasting radio messages that should remain private in his opinion, Alonso said:

“In football, in tennis, you have your moments of privacy with your team,” he said. “I know it’s part of the show. As I said, all the things broadcast on the radio are a bit spicy because the sport wants that spice into the race.”

Lewis Hamilton himself admitted that his collision with Alonso was his fault.