Bradley Scanes says Max Verstappen’s infamous poke at Lewis Hamilton’s rear wing in Brazil 2021 wasn’t a hot-headed moment. It was a choice.
Speaking on the High Performance podcast, Verstappen’s former performance coach (2019–2023) claimed the then-Red Bull driver knowingly racked up a €50,000 fine for touching Hamilton’s Mercedes in parc fermé at Interlagos — all to crank up the pressure in a title fight that was already boiling.
“That was measured,” Scanes said. “He knew he was going to get a €50k fine and no impact on track.” It wasn’t, he added, a spur-of-the-moment impulse. “In the team it was discussed.”
The scene is burned into F1 memory: Hamilton had been disqualified from qualifying for a rear-wing infringement — later put down by Mercedes to a broken component — before slicing through the sprint from the back and then storming from 10th to win the grand prix, even with a gearbox penalty. Verstappen, watching the black car go by like it had afterburners, inspected the Mercedes wing after qualy and paid for it.
Scanes insists the move did exactly what it was meant to do. Even if nothing came of it, he argued, it shifted the narrative and rattled the opposition. In his telling, it did more than that. “For the last two races, they couldn’t run that particular wing,” he claimed, calling the episode “helpful” as the season reached its crescendo.
The tone around the paddock? As frosty as it gets. “2021 is probably the best experience I’ve ever had,” Scanes said, describing the mood between Red Bull and Mercedes as “war.” The public jousts between Christian Horner and Toto Wolff were one thing. The private moments — in cooldown rooms, in hospitality, walking past each other in the tunnel of Interlagos — were another. “Nobody would even look at each other,” he said. “You could cut the tension with a knife.”
Verstappen went on to clinch his first of four consecutive World Championships that year, passing Hamilton on the final lap in Abu Dhabi after the controversial Safety Car restart. Scanes, unsurprisingly, feels his man earned it. He still tips his cap to the dueling greats: “Both drivers for sure deserved to win that title that year,” he said, before adding with a grin you could hear through the mic: “Obviously, I’m biased and we deserved it more.”
Whether one sees the wing-touch as gamesmanship or games gone too far, Scanes’ account paints a clear picture of the margins at play in that season. In a fight decided by inches and interpretations, even a €50k fine was just another tool in the box.
