Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Albert Park, 2019

Hamilton expects season-long fight with Red Bull and Ferrari

2019 F1 season

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Lewis Hamilton says he’s impressed by the progress Red Bull have made with new power unit supplier Honda and predicts they’ll be in the fight with Mercedes and Ferrari throughout the season.

Max Verstappen overtook Sebastian Vettel during the Australian Grand Prix and closed on Hamilton at one point.

“It’s great to see the improvement that it’s had for their team,” said Hamilton after Mercedes finished one-two in the opening race of the season. “Obviously they were with Renault for such a long time and obviously he was able to pass a Ferrari.

“It’s awesome Red Bull are there with us and I think we’re going to have a really great battle through the year between the three of us. I’m sure Ferrari had something not right this weekend but I’m pretty sure their car is still good.

“I think it’s going to be a brilliant rest of the season. I think for Honda, I remember watching Ayrton Senna drive with the Honda, they were a force back then and it’s great to see them back up there.”

However Vettel is not as convinced F1 will see a three-way fight between in the top teams this year.

“I can’t speak for other people but I think we have three big teams and I think all of these three teams have the potential to have a very strong year,” he said.

“We’re looking on ourselves first and hopefully both of us will be ahead of everybody else. But I think we’re aware it will be very close.”

The Ferrari driver also tipped Pierre Gasly to bounce back from his difficult first race weekend at Red Bull.

“I think Pierre as well got a bit unlucky [on Saturday]. I don’t think he was much off the whole weekend compared to Max. So his race was pretty much lost from the start.

“But I think all of these six drivers from the end will have a word to say. Hopefully as long as possible for all of us to be in the fight and then see where we are.”

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2019 F1 season

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16 comments on “Hamilton expects season-long fight with Red Bull and Ferrari”

  1. “I think Pierre as well got a bit unlucky [on Saturday]. I don’t think he was much off the whole weekend compared to Max. So his race was pretty much lost from the start.”
    – Yes indeed. The qualifying mistake by the team more or less reduced set the outcome of the race for him before it had even started. Had he started at least 6th (which he at the very least probably would have had it not been for the tactical error in Q1) then he potentially like his teammate could’ve to beat the Ferrari’s as well.

    1. It seems I forgot to take off the word ‘reduced’ from there. I altered my wording slightly before posting and didn’t notice that it was still there.

      1. @jerejj: Without an edit or preview button, RaceFans is meant to read in the spirit of:
        “Read what I meant, not what I mistyped” ;-)

        Also: I didn’t notice your not-fully reduced altered wording until you pointed it out.

        1. Weird, I do have a ‘preview’ button.
          It’s positioned all over the screen outside the ‘post comment’ button.

    2. Gasly in a RBR could not overtake a TR, why are we soppose to think he could have overtaken a Ferrari if he would have started somewhere around P6…?

      Being out in Q1 was a stupid mistake partially by the team, the phrase ‘never underestimate your enemies’ was in place here. RBR simple underestimated the other teams, though Gasly had a poor performance at Australia…it’s not like Austalia is a harder track for overtaking than Monaco is… where Verstappen made reasonable progress… to me it look quite painfull seeing Gasly struggle all race long

      1. I guess if one wanted to be harsh on Gasly one could say if he had run a better lap initially he wouldn’t have gotten eliminated as he would have had the buffer that RBR thought he had. But I don’t see it that way. It is early days for PG and I am not going to heap the kind of pressure on him that would see him immediately right there with Max. I’m sure he’ll have better days but he is relatively new to F1 and to RBR with a mega-teammate on the other side of the garage. Given some time to gel with the team, he’ll do great.

      2. Have to agree with matn, being unable to overtake a toro rosso, in fact letting the team who had successfully made an overcut down by being overtaken by a tr with a red bull is bad regardless of how you spin it. Verstappen overtakes vettel in a struggling ferrari and gasly can’t overtake a toro rosso? I’m not comparing it to verstappen, I’m comparing him to the average driver.

  2. I guess everyone has got used to the halo by now right? I remember the hate for it before last season, now we realise that it hasn’t changed the look much, all got used to it, and our drivers are safer, and now of them have less vision in the cockpit.

    1. I can accept the ugliness to make the sport safer.

      I am disappointed they have done little to improve the ability to identify the driver. Helmet colors on the Halo or something.

      At least the new camera shots are cool.

      1. Surprised this has come up. I never had much issue with them and when they were actually on all the cars last year I quickly got used to them. Not an issue for me but for those who will never like them they will, I’m sure, look better when integrated with the 2021 cars.

  3. Preview button? I am currently using Firefox on Win 8.1..(don’t laugh), I just have Post comment.

    1. Wahaha, sorry, couldn’t help myself 😜

  4. This is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that LH has said he hopes for competition, yet he is always so sour and acts so hard done by when he isn’t the one that has lead the ‘close competition’ and gotten the win.

    Oh I’m sure he and SV and many top drivers, actually many athletes in all sports, feel much more reward from defeating tough competition than from cakewalking it through, but still…when it doesn’t go his way…competition is great as long as I’m in top. This not meant as an insult. I think it is very natural. I just think that in spite of his less than perfect weekend, Merc still got a 1-2, and had it been Ferrari with the 1-2 as many thought might happen, and as even LH hinted at, he wouldn’t be saying how great the close competition is looking to be this year. He’d be sounding down-trodden about the work they have to do, and it would be more like ‘oh great,’ rather than ‘isn’t this great.’ Can you imagine him saying ‘Isn’t it great that Ferrari is leading for a change’? ;)

    Bottom line for me…LH must be quite confident after Australia that he will once again prevail this season.

    1. The Skeptic (@)
      23rd March 2019, 21:19

      No. I think that when Lewis is in the heat of competition, he really believes that he will come out on top, and invests a lot of himself into doing so. On the occasions when he doesn’t, he is disappointed and emotional. And shares that honestly.

      When he has stepped away, and taken some time to think, he remembers that close competition is the proof of mettle for a true champion. So he shares that honestly too.

      Your comment about what would happen if Ferrari are leading is unfair and demonstrably wrong. When Ferrari/Vettel were leading the championship last year, Lewis spoke about his appreciation for the competition, and how much he was relishing the fight.

  5. georgeboole (@)
    23rd March 2019, 13:24

    Lewis, please define long.
    Thank you.

  6. Comment from Hamilton confirms to me Merc will win nearly every race, Red Bull might win a few and Ferrari none just like 2014. Would love to be proven wrong.

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