In a recent interview with Daily Mail, Toto Wolff, the team principal of Mercedes F1 has said that the current title fight between Verstappen and Hamilton is similar to the one between Senna and Prost, especially the incidents that occurred between the Brazilian and French during the 1989 and 1990 Japanese GP. 

As he said during the interview: “If it was to come to the scenario of the last race in Abu Dhabi and they were to be racing each other for the title, whoever is in front is absolutely going to try to do the same as in the Senna-Prost years. What happened in Monza? Verstappen took Lewis out because he was about to overtake and he was quicker. And that is totally understandable.

“If you are racing for the championship and you see it fading away because the other guy is overtaking you, what tool have you got other than the one that makes sure he can’t overtake?

“We’ve seen it with Schumacher and Villeneuve, we saw it with Senna and Prost twice.”

Christian Horner, the team principal of Red Bull heard about these comments during the conference that took place between the first and second free practice sessions on Friday, and was not only disappointed, but also immediately stressed that the title should be decided in a clean and fair manner. As he said: “I was disappointed to read the comments that that’s being condoned but I think that we want a really fair fight between now and the end of the championship. Any driver would want to win the championship on track.

“We’re a team of racers and if we can pull off this feat – and it’s a massive, massive task – then we wouldn’t want to win a championship through a collision between the drivers. There’s been enough of those this year already.

“I think what we saw in Austin was a great fight between two drivers very much at the top of their game and with a few more races like Austin between now and the end of the year I think the biggest winner will be Formula 1.

“Nobody wants to see a championship decided in a gravel trap.”

He added that as a team they want to do all the talking on the track, and that he is not really phased by the comments, since he doesn’t really have an issue with the Mercedes principal. 

As he said: “To be honest with you, as far as we are concerned it’s all noise, it all depends on what you do on the track and if you can do your talking on the track then that has way more weight and value. Toto likes to throw in a comment here or there and that’s part of the needle, that’s part of the sport.

“He’s got a lot at stake, he’s going for an eighth world championship with his driver, we’re going for a first with Max and to add to the titles that we’ve already won.

“Formula 1’s a competition. As the pressure builds you see people react to pressure in different ways and we’re at the business end of that championship now so you can feel the tension and that will only grow the longer this goes on.

“If Toto wants to make a comment or two, I’m fine with that. It’s pantomime season coming up anyway, so it is what it is.”

Horner also admitted that he is not afraid of utilising team orders during the Mexican GP, even though it would be an “incredibly tough” decision to make if it meant stripping Perez from the home win. As he admitted in the interview: “Our main objective is to win both championships and both drivers know the task involved to achieve that. But of course so many scenarios, what-ifs can happen. It will depend where our opponents are.

“So you can’t rule it out, you can’t rule it on. Our preference would be to see, if Checo were in that position, for him to win his home race. There is no bigger result for a home driver.

“But as a team we have to keep an eye on both of these championships and know what’s at stake and this race, like any other, has the same number of points attributable to it.”