“Don’t want to come to a situation when somebody gets really hurt”: When Toto warned Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen during their 2021 title battle

Back in 2021, Toto Wolff delivered a stern warning to Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen during the two drivers' fierce title battle. Wolff, the Mercedes team principal, warned the drivers to race fairly and avoid a situation when "somebody gets hurt."

The 2021 F1 season saw numerous titanic battles between Hamilton and Verstappen, two of the most successful F1 drivers of all time. The two were not only evenly matched but also delivered consistent performances, which kept them in contention for the fight till the very last lap of the very last race.

During the season, the two drivers made on-track contact numerous times, and one of the most recognizable ones was the Monza GP collision, where both drivers took each other out. Verstappen, coming out of the pit stop, wanted to keep his advantage and go around the outside of Hamilton, but fate had other ideas.

As Verstappen left no room, Hamilton hit the former in Turn 2 directly, and both of them were into the gravel soon after. Verstappen's Red Bull got lifted on top of Hamilton's Mercedes, creating a panic situation. However, the seven-time world champion was safe, thanks to Halo. Speaking of the aftermath of the incident, and to avoid any incidents like this in the future, here's what Wolff said in the media,

"We don't want to have situations in the future where one loses the position, and the only way of stopping the race or stopping the other one scoring is just by taking him out. Both of them need to leave space for each other, race each other hard, but avoid accidents."

“Because it was good fun until now, but we have seen a halo that saved Lewis’s life today, and Max had this heavy impact in Silverstone. We don’t want to come to a situation to intervene when somebody gets really hurt," he further added. (Via Autosport)

Besides Monza, the two drivers also collided at Silverstone, where Verstappen lost control of his car, slid, and hit the barrier at a massive speed. The two drivers battled to the final race of the season, where Max Verstappen emerged as the champion over Lewis Hamilton under a controversial Safety Car situation.

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Toto Wolff lauded Halo for saving Lewis Hamilton's "life"

Formula 1's decision to bring in Halo did not go futile as the genius invention saved Lewis Hamilton's life in Monza in 2021, claimed Toto Wolff, his then team boss. Speaking about how the Halo saved his driver, here's what the Austrian boss said in the media:

Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (33) Red Bull Racing RB16B Honda and Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain driving the (44) Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team Mercedes W12 crash during the F1 Grand Prix of Italy at Autodromo di Monza - Source: Getty

"Halo definitely saved Lewis’s life today. It would have been a horrible accident, that I don’t even want to think about, if we wouldn’t have had the halo.” (via Autosport)

F1 introduced the Halo in 2018 as a measure to protect the driver's head from debris and impact. Not only Lewis Hamilton, but Halo also saved Zhou Guanyu, the former Alfa Romeo driver, when he crashed during the 2022 British GP.