READER LETTER | Verstappen will forever be a tainted F1 champion

I read the article written by John Floyd, published in the Citizen on the April 19. First, there is a massive picture of Lewis Hamilton next to these words, “It was a team order to help someone within our team”.

These infamous words were uttered by Nelson Piquet jnr, but in this article it comes across as if it came from Hamilton’s mouth. John Floyd touches so brilliantly on both the 2008 and 2021 F1 titles. Floyd fails to mention that the Renault F1’s deliberate crash was in aid of Fernando Alonso and had absolutely nothing to do with Hamilton.

Floyd, an accomplished F1 pundit, will know that the rules were not followed in the Abu Dhabi 2021 race and Max Verstappen was not supposed to have won that race, that is only if he is fair and does not take sides. Verstappen had done brilliantly in the 2021 season as whole, yes, that cannot be taken away from him (like the race win was taken from Hamiton) ... but his win on the day was fraught with blatant cheating. Verstappen will forever be a tainted F1 Champion, just like Alonso.

Ted Kravitz harping on about Masi at the Australian GP was right, considering the circumstances under which he was let go by F1. I disagree with Floyd in saying this is Kravitz’s personal issue. Masi was in F1 for a long time and Kravitz has been with Sky F1 for a long time as well. If there were any personal issues between the two it would have long surfaced.

I am actually one of the fans who signed the petition. I would like to see the results of that 2021 AD race reversed. As to what happens to the title, we know what needs to happen like many other fans out there in the world, not only the UK like you'd like us to believe.

This article came across as a personal attack on Hamilton, which may be misconstrued as personal from your side. You aptly quoted the literature from Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll, how appropriate?

Zakes Nakedi, Ennerdale, Johannesburg