Hamilton: 'Verstappen does the easiest thing by staying at Red Bull

Hamilton clearly wasn’t in the mood for questions about Verstappen after this Thursday, it was announced that Verstappen will remain with Red Bull Racing.

When GPblog asked the Ferrari driver in Zandvoort whether he was surprised by the Dutchman’s contract extension, the Brit mumbled: “I haven't really put much thought into it.”

When pressed on the importance of Verstappen staying in Formula 1, he gave an equally uninterested answer: “Of course. How would it not be?”

A Hamilton media session can usually go one of two ways. If he is in the mood for the mandatory chat with the international media, he's jovial and offers interesting opinions and statements. More often, however, Hamilton makes it clear that the Thursday press sessions of a Grand Prix weekend are simply an obligation. Then, his answers are short or evasive, as they were in Zandvoort on this occasion.

In the end, he did answer a question about the Dutchman's decision to stay with his current team. When asked whether a true top driver should win a title with two different teams, Hamilton initially said: “I don't really have an opinion on that necessarily. I don't know if it makes a huge difference. I think he's with a great team. He's been with them a long, long time. And I mean, they just keep going from strength to strength. It's a really amazing place to be and to work clearly."

He then added: “So when you look at the history of drivers that do move around, there's some drivers that have moved a crazy amount, and sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. But yeah, the easiest thing is always to stay where you are comfortable. That's his choice and it's not a bad choice.”

Hamilton was a little more talkative about the Dutch Grand Prix. He has never won at Zandvoort and wants to change that. “I don't think I've won here, as far as I'm aware. So, won it pretty much all the other tracks, but I don't think, I don't remember if I've won here before. So, definitely want to change that. So massively driven.”