Lewis Hamilton 'sends a message' to Toto Wolff for snatching key weapon from Max Verstappen

Lewis Hamilton messaged Toto Wolff to steal Max Verstappen's technical director Adrian Newey. Hamilton praised Newey for designing Red Bull's competitive car ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix after Verstappen took his ninth win of the season last time out at Spa.

The seven-time champion admitted it was 'not surprising' that Red Bull were dominating with Newey at the helm and revealed his understanding of the new ground effect rules had been an 'advantage' for the crew. Sky Sports host Rachel Brooks then suggested Hamilton's remarks could lead to the Mercedes star asking Wolff to strike a deal to bring the top designer to the Silver Arrows.

Hamilton's comments came after Ted Kravitz asked him what makes Red Bull's car so strong.

The Mercedes driver replied: "They clearly have great aerodynamic balance, they clearly have great ride quality, he has no problem with the bumps... They're a great team. They made a amazing job.

“You have to take your hat off to Red Bull, they did a phenomenal job. They also had a great car last year. If you look at Adrian Newey, he doesn't usually build bad cars. amazing cars over the years. My championship winning car was an evolution of his car. He did his thesis on ground effect floors, I mean it's no surprise to be honest.

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"He's one of the only ones to hand-draw the design of the cars. So his understanding was definitely a plus for them and they did a good job." Sky Sports host Karun Chandhok was shocked by Hamilton's comments.

He explained: "It was quite an extraordinary response. It's very rare to hear a driver of a top team give as much praise as he gave to a technical director or a technical manager from another team.

Rachel Brooks added: "Is that a 'Toto, get Adrian'?"

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Ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix, Hamilton added that he was already considering next year's Mercedes after a horrific season for the German manufacturer.

He said, "There are bits of [the car] that are good. There's performance in there, it's just whether or not you can use that performance. You want a car of that people on every track you go to. The Red Bull generally seems to work in the majority of places.

“It’s about figuring out why and somehow working on next year’s car, whatever that aero balance is, to make sure the car works everywhere. There's a lot of things about this car that we would change, I would change and the team would change and that's what we're going to try to do for next year's car."