Eddie Jordan Says Hamilton Allowed Aggressive Verstappen To Upset Him

Former F1 team owner and principal Eddie Jordan has chimed in on the titanic 2021 world championship fight which was won out by Max Verstappen in controversial circumstances at Abu Dhabi over the weekend. He revealed that Hamilton had gone soft and allowed an aggressive and arrogant Max Verstappen to upset him which resulted in him being dethroned as the F1 world champion. 

"You can't deny Verstappen the right to the championship. However, on the other side, I think Hamilton has opened the door. He's allowed someone as aggressive and arrogant as Verstappen to upset him and steal his title from him. I think Lewis has been too nice for too long and I think he needs to harden himself up again. For me, it's his body language. Listen to the way he spoke afterwards - he was so sporting. All of Britain can be so proud of what he's doing, but nice guys don't win titles and he's become a nice guy. He's the best driver I've ever seen and I've seen some really top drivers in my time, so for me to say that I'm really putting him on a pedestal," said the Irishman. 

The Irishman was of the opinion that Hamilton allowed Verstappen to get under his skin
Photo Credit: F1.com

Hamilton has often said during this championship fight that he's often had to ensure that the two didn't crash because of Verstappen's aggressive on the limit driving style which has been very unrelenting. In fact, the last time he lost a title fight was also when someone got under his skin which was in 2016 when his former teammate and childhood friend Nico Rosberg defeated him. 

Hamilton has been praised for his clean driving style, but whenever he retaliated against Verstappen or refused to relent, the two collided. The ugliest example of this can be seen at the British GP when Hamilton's minute error caused the crash that left Verstappen reeling with a 51G impact. Then again the two came together at Monza resulting in both retiring and then both of them came together a couple of times in Saudi Arabia, almost crashing even in Brazil as well.