Hamilton: We can’t keep relying on mistakes of others in title fight

2021 Spanish Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes have profited from the mistakes of their rivals in the opening races of the season, and must keep improving their car to retain their championship titles.

However he wasn’t surprised to find himself leading the championship after the first three races, despite the problems the team encountered in pre-season testing.

“I wouldn’t say that it’s surprising because I know what my team is capable of when we when we put our minds to the job,” he said.

“Definitely the test didn’t look great. At the first race, obviously, we were still up there, but you could see the deficit from us to the Red Bulls.

“I think in terms of overall output through the weekend, we’ve managed to to do a better job. [But] we really can’t continue to rely on mistakes from the others.”

Hamilton’s Portugal win put him eight points ahead in title fight
Having taken two wins and a second place from the opening races, Hamilton is satisfied with the job he’s done so far. “We’re just keeping our heads down and continuing to work away,” he said. “We’ve got a good package and it does have its weak areas and that’s what we’re working on.

“From my side, I’m really happy with the output so far. I think naturally you’re always trying to raise the bar and that’s something that’s very difficult to do and make as many as few mistakes as possible.

“But they’ve been there and I’m grateful for them because it just makes you stronger and you learn from those experiences. What’s crazy to think is this 20 more [races] to go – it’s a fricking long season.”

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As well as reducing errors, Hamilton said car reliability will be a deciding factor in his championship fight with Max Verstappen.

Verstappen has “a championship-winning car without a doubt”
“You’re seeing the closest battle we’ve seen for some time and you’re seeing Max really performing exceptionally well,” he said. “He has a championship-winning car without a doubt, and a championship-winning team who can really pull off the job this year if we don’t do our job.

“I definitely think our experience will help us in terms of how we approach weekends and how we battle back from difficult weekends. From my side, I would like to think that experience will help, but at the end of the day, you just have to do the job and minimal mistakes.

“Reliability is going to be a key player also this year. And so you’re seeing even these fastest lap extra points are going to be significant by the end of the year, too.”

Having faced little opposition from outside his own team on his way to last year’s championship, Hamilton is relishing the competition with Verstappen.

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“Hopefully you can remember when we were fighting against Ferrari, that is my preferred scenario, when we’re fighting against another team who are at their best and even ahead, potentially, in certain instances,” he said.

“Of course Max is more experienced now than than he ever has been and clearly incredibly hungry to win more races and to win this championship. And, you know, game on. That’s what we’re all here to do, is to race and to be fighting for wins.

“The battles that we’ve had just in these first few races have been amazing and I’m excited to to enjoy more of them.”

McLaren’s Lando Norris is an unexpected third in the championship going into this weekend’s race. Hamilton is pleased by his former team’s progress.

“It’s great to see a lot of other teams doing well,” he said. “It’s really great to see McLaren up there, of course, who gave me my break and to [then] see them go through such a difficult period of time.

“I always look when I’m in the garage, I’m always trying to see where they are because that’s obviously old family to me. So it’s great to see them coming back up and starting to show some real speed. The more, the merrier.”

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72 comments on “Hamilton: We can’t keep relying on mistakes of others in title fight”

  1. As far as I’m aware, only one of the title contenders has planted their car into the wall so far this season, and it hasn’t been “his rivals”.

    1. But in that race mistakes by Perez (and almost by Max) made it easier for Hamilton to survive that one with a second place finish in Imola. Well, and one “rival” who crashed with Hamilton’s teammate @kingshark!

      It does show that Mercedes (and off course Hamilton himself) is operating at high enough level to be able to find that small things they need to profit and just “be there.

      1. Jelle van der Meer (@)
        7th May 2021, 10:30

        To only reason Hamilton managed to finished 2nd is because Russell and Bottas caused the red flag, so pure luck.

        Perez didn’t help by giving Hamilton a free position but with the overspeed and long DRS Perez wouldn’t have been able to keep Hamilton behind anyway. Max slide prior to restart had no effect to the outcome of the race.

    2. @kingshark But that wasn’t his mistake. It was Russell’s. As he said, “From my side, I’m really happy with the output so far”

    3. RandomMallard (@)
      7th May 2021, 10:49

      I don’t think they’re necessarily the mistakes he’s on about. I think he’s more on about Max running wide on several occasions and collectively losing a win, a pole and a FLAP.

      1. @randommallard Exactly. Only Verstappen has made mistakes. If it wasn’t for them, they would be behind in the slower car is what he’s saying.

        1. RandomMallard (@)
          7th May 2021, 13:04

          Ah ok I misunderstood Kingshark as saying Bottas was the only one who’d ended up in the wall, not Lewis 2 laps beforehand!!!

          Bottas as a title contender. Yh I see what you mean now

    4. “Planted”?
      You hate so much, that you can’t discern between “plant” and “slightly touched”?

      1. Slightly touched would imply a brief brush with the wall and then continue without any problems.

        If you break your front wing, need to use reverse gear and lose a lap, then planted is an adequate word.

        1. @kingshark You criticized or mentioned Hamilton’s mistake which obviously means you’re filled with hatred. Same goes for questioning anything he does btw: https://www.racefans.net/2021/04/26/hamilton-didnt-break-the-rules-by-reversing-shouldnt-be-a-story/

    5. I wouldn’t take this too seriously, this is pure gamesmanship from Lewis. It’s true that Max made more small errors but Lewis has the only blunder of the season so far.

  2. Keep massively underplaying your own strength. keeps the pressure off. They weren’t quickest in qualy trim at sakhir that is it.

    1. F1oSaurus (@)
      7th May 2021, 8:59

      @peartree Fastest in Bahrain race as well. Verstappen should have gotten pole in all 3 events. That he didn’t for two was due to mistakes. Should have taken the win in Bahrain, but he didn’t due to a poorly timed and poorly executed overtake.

      Are you seriously going to pretend that you did not expect Verstappen to take pole on Saturday in Portugal after being a quarter of a second faster in FP3? Or for that matter after setting the fastest lap in Q3? Had he not bungled that lap, he would have started from pole and controlled the race from the front in a car at the very least on pace with Mercedes.

      1. I seriously didn’t expect verstappen to take pole since mercedes dominated qualifying up until q3, and I know how much mercedes sandbags before ofc, even if verstappen’s lap time hadn’t been deleted I wouldn’t have been sure of a verstappen pole, considering there’s another lap.

        1. F1oSaurus (@)
          7th May 2021, 11:04

          @esploratore Well the non rabid Verstappen fans would see the trend that Verstappen tends to put in a poor performance in quali when he has the car to get pole rather than actually taking pole. While Hamilton is usually the opposite in that he can be struggling in free practice, but performs at his best when the pressure is on. There is no way Verstappen’s fans are going to accept that into their mind though.

          Also, sure it wasn’t the 8 tenths of advantage that Verstappen had in Bahrain or the 6 tenths he had in Imola, but a quarter second is still quite a lot.

          1. This is the most nonsense I have read in a long time: ”the trend that Verstappen tends to put in a poor performance in quali when he has the car to get pole rather than actually taking pole. While Hamilton is usually the opposite in that he can be struggling in free practice, but performs at his best when the pressure is on”.

            I am a huge fan of both drivers, but this is just Trumpesk changing the narrative. Verstappen overcomes the lack of the RB car vs the Mercedes by driving his a off (which sometimes goes hand in hand with a wobble since he has to drive to the edge to get near the Mercedes). The Mercedes drivers do not need to get to this length/risk since the car has an advantage (or are we going to throw away the 8 years of domination all of a sudden since Max manages to get a bit closer after Mercedes ran behind their winter test schedule?).

            I can only conclude that some Hamilton fans are not very happy with the car getting some credits of the 7 titles of Lewis. So they need to eliminate the car to prove Lewis is great. To me Lewis has always been great. One of the best and he just happens to have a dominant car. Lucky for him and us otherwise no-one could ever come near all those Schumacher records. And records are there to be broken. Just leave Verstappen out of this frustration please. He is enjoyable to watch and is a breath of fresh air between those two Mercedes cars. Its quite simple: as long as Bottas can put the Mercedes on pole, it is clearly still dominant. We do no have to argue on Bottas qualities, we all know he is mediocre at best. As long as Perez is not near Bottas, the Mercedes is still dominant. But don’t worry, Lewis is still very good, probably one of the best

          2. The only thing I can agree with about what you said is that indeed verstappen historically threw away several chances to get poles when his red bull was particularly competitive, example monaco and mexico 2018, which went to his team mate ricciardo, despite everyone knowing (I suppose) he’s faster than ricciardo when he makes no mistakes, so yes, sometimes when he’s the favourite he makes mistakes, but the rest of what you said seems really excessive, example the 6 tenths margin in qualifying in imola if verstappen hadn’t made a mistake are a thing only you see.

          3. F1oSaurus (@)
            7th May 2021, 13:45

            Verstappen overcomes the lack of the RB car vs the Mercedes by driving his a off

            How is that not utter nonsense? They are both going for the maximum. Actually it has generally been Hamilton who had a fight in Q3 with Bottas while Verstappen could just cruise to P3 anyway since he doesn’t have a team mate in contention.

            The point is that Verstappen demonstably made a much more errors in qualifying when he had the car to get pole. All those Monaco qiali’s where he put it in the wall. Singapore where Hamilton snateched it away. Malaysia and Mexico. All high downforce tracks where they were fastest until he couldn;t get a lap together in Q3 or got it invalidated.

            Just like Turkey, Sakhir etc last season and 2 races this season. He really does have issues when he has the chance of pole

          4. Qmayrton

            This is the most nonsense I have read in a long time:

            then you obviously missed a lot of f1oSaurys story’s here. His “reality” lies in another dimension ;)

      2. @F10clown
        Ah, good ol’ F1o’clown still falling for the Mercedes narrative of having a slower car, despite Lewis doing a 1.17,9 on yellow tires in Q2……..

        Let me repeat: Lewis drove a 1.17,9 on yellow tires, and you expect Max with his 1.18,2 on reds to be able to be on pole?

        The only reason why you might think that, is Lewis totally failing in q3, where he should have driven a 1.17,2 on reds……but hey, what do we know, right?

        Oooh, ignorance is bliss I guess

        1. The point here is to repeat it so many times that it becomes fact. That’s how the world works. It’s all about the narrative now.

          1. But sadly narratives only matter to the fans and won’t get the results to the drivers out there on the track. So, rabidly pushing or denying a narrative is just fun for a moment but ultimately useless.

          2. F1oSaurus (@)
            7th May 2021, 15:23

            @balue @rockgod, By all means explain how Verstappen was 8 tenths faster than Hamilton in FP3 in Bahrain and still didn’t get pole. Not ony did he not get pole, he was beaten by Perez who should be at least 8 tenths behind him.

            Or how Verstappen was a querter second faster in Fp3 in Portugal, set a laptime of half a second faster than Hamilton and Bottas even when he had a snap (and thus should have been able to go evne a few tenths faster) and how he got fastest lap during the race.

            The only ones with a “narrative” are you guys. Do you seriously think Verstappen is the one who makes the car just go 8 tenths faster on occasion and when he then cannot repeat that again it means his car got slower?

            Just stop it with this nonsense and accept the truth.

          3. @f1osaurus Of course. FP3 reveals true pace more than anything. Let’s go with that.

          4. @f1osaurus I think you misunderstood what I said. Let me be clearer. Narratives don’t matter, results do. Drivers create them for “mind games” and fans create them to cope with the fact that their favorite driver couldn’t get better results.

            Looking at the lap times in quali (with no mistakes) and races (free air), I believe that RBR were faster in all 3 qualis, but they were only faster in Bahrain race but not in Imola and Portimao.

          5. F1oSaurus (@)
            7th May 2021, 17:57

            @balue Can you not read? I gave a whole heap of evidence that Red Bull had the faster car for the first few races. It’s not just one time.

          6. F1oSaurus (@)
            7th May 2021, 18:04

            @rockgod Narratives is only what blind fans like Balue give. I like to investigate laptimes and strategy and from that deduce a bit more of what is going on. To read a bit more into what is happening than simply looking at the outcome of a race.

            So yes if one driver is posting the fastest lap in all session, but keeps making mistakes in Q3, then it’s clear it’s his own fault he did not get pole even though the car is faster.

            Or when people pretend that Mercedes is much faster on the straights due to their stronger engine, because Verstappen and Horner like to repeat that lie. Hamilton was 0.1 km/h faster on the straight than Verstappen in Q3. Hamilton was just as much faster than Bottas on the straight as he was relative to Verstappen. It’s that both of them had a poor exit out of a turn before and/or the tow or DRS that Hamilton got while Verstappen lost DRS due to his mistake.

            Also, AlphaTauri usually gets higher speed trap figures than Mercedes and Red Bull. It’s aero the setup that makes for the straight line speed differences.

            Maybe it’s a waste of time, but I do feel it makes sense to point out the facts rather then just accept the “narrative”.

        2. Just tell me you were Oconomo all along.

      3. @f1osaurus I did say rb was quickest in sakhir but I don’t think there is any data available showing rb should have had pole in all 3, only that they could have had it. There are some sector times and cut laps that show verstappen quickest however that does not mean the merc drivers did not make mistakes of their own. ther merc looks super quick, mistaking a nervous car for a quick car as in the past 2 season, the car turns like no other. We know Max could have pit up better laps, we don’t know whether or not merc could have gone quicker. It is apparent after 3 rounds merc is still sandbagging and still downplaying in the media, they are very good on Sundays, the whole story about losing more pace than their rivals falls apart when the season looks like a continuation of abu dhabi.

    2. Why are people looking so hard at the things Lewis doesn’t say?? He says X so he must mean Y. He says Y, he must mean X. It’s a bit strange to say the least but ok, whatever gets you up in the morning

  3. Before we get onto exact the same narratives here, which Racefans seem to enjoy so much: Yes Lewis is the best. Yes Max is bad. Yes you are all heroes and the hest yourselves. Congratulations.

  4. Hamilton: We can’t keep relying on very fortunate safety cars and red flags coming to the rescue after I park my car in the wall and throw away 18 points!

    And although I managed to drive a 1.17,9 on yellow tires in Portugal we have to keep reminding everyone the RBR is the fastest car….cough…cough…..

    1. ian dearing
      7th May 2021, 9:03

      What else didn’t he say?

      1. Weird isnt it!

  5. Don’t agree, Lewis. If Verstappen and Red Bull stay in this entirely underwhelming form, where they almost seem surprised and scared to be favourites, you can definitely sneak a world title.

    1. Expect the next few race wins to be Max-Lewis-Max and then possibly a McLaren.

    2. @hahostolze

      It pretty crazy how this entire narrative hinges on Russel hitting Bottas. If that hadn’t happened, we’d be talking about Max being well ahead of Lewis and Mercedes failing to be competitive.

  6. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
    7th May 2021, 9:28

    This is just pure psychology at work. A rally up to his own team but a passive aggressive jibe at his rivals. Get in their heads, highlight their every minor mistake and almost make it seem like they’re making it easy for him. When in reality the only big mistake was his at Imola but he got away with that and walked away with a huge aura of ‘nothing can stop this relentless team and driver.’ They’ve been downplaying their performance for years and years but stepped it up a notch this year. Whatever they say I would definitely rather be in the Mercedes than the Red Bull.

    1. Indeed, you just wait a day or so to see spain’s true performance and then we could already claim rubbish to what he said.

    2. F1oSaurus (@)
      7th May 2021, 11:09

      @rdotquestionmark It’s true though. Hamilton might have made a mistake in Imola, but he managed to recover. While Verstappen made mistakes in Bahrain and Portugal which cost him two poles and two wins.

      In fact even for Imola Verstappen wasted a pole position, but was lucky that after a good start he could ram into Hamilton without any damage to his own car.

      So they both recovered one mistake with some luck, but Verstappen made a few more and that put Hamilton in the lead.

      1. @f1osaurus I’m sorry, but that’s just a terrible example. Hamilton only managed to recover in Imola because of the flukiest of flukes. Had Bottas and Russell not crashed, he’d have bene 7th or 8th at best. Miles behind Verstappen in the WDC. And it would all look a lot different.

        1. F1oSaurus (@)
          7th May 2021, 13:25

          @hahostolze Yet Verstappen was lucky to get away with a car in one piece the way he drove into Hamilton. He could have dropped out and been miles behind Hamilton in the WDC. And it would all look a lot different.

          1. @hahostolze @f1osaurus what? Max drove into Lewis? All logic falls apart all reason. You defeated yourself f1osaurus. Ham did not want to let the lead go, he should have backed out Ham did a good job not losing the whole wing against the kerb.

          2. F1oSaurus (@)
            8th May 2021, 11:07

            @peartree They were side by side. Verstappen did not have the right to the racing line and took it anyway. So YES he drove into Hamilton.

          3. @f1osaurus Is today opposite day?

      2. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
        7th May 2021, 12:51

        @f1osaurus Very minor but important mistakes which Lewis is using to infer superiority over Max. It’s very clever and something Lewis always does well when he has a fight on his hands. Then Lewis got away with a huge mistake (not in judgement but in consequence) and is almost rubbing it in. “Don’t worry it won’t be happening again and even so we are winning already.”

      3. It’s true though. Hamilton might have made a mistake in Imola,

        LOL “might”… is that the best you can do? He totally panicked and even now tries to play the mental game.
        So he must be very worried.

        1. I dont think this comment will age very well. Let’s re visit in July

        2. F1oSaurus (@)
          8th May 2021, 11:16

          erikje,

          Your command of English language is perhaps poor, but might is simply the pas past tense of may. As in “That may be the case, but …”. You’re welcome.

          Not sure how Hamilton panicked. He was weaving through a herd of back markers in an inconvenient spot and it went wrong. It’s not like Verstappen or Vettel’s panic state that he drives like lightning McQueen with no consideration for tyre wear. Or like Verstappen messing up 2 out of 3 times in Q3 when he has the fastest car with a clear shot for pole.

          That’s panic. Just driving along and something going wrong is hardly “panic”.

          Maybe you could say that Hamilton’s amazing recovery to P2 was in a panic, but that’s the difference. Hamilton actually thrives in such conditions. He’s mentally much stronger than Verstappen, Vettel, Rosberg, Bottas etc.

        3. Exactly. I have no other explanation for Lewis’ behaviour other that he feels big pressure from Max. You would expect that to not hurt him given his WDC tally. Normally he would have beached that car at Imola and Max would have taken 25 pt on him, he know that so maybe that’s what he’s worried about. Still, Lewis should know that doesnt matter of the course of a season.. the consistent pace and performance of this team (including himself) is still mindblowing strong.

    3. This is why Bottas is not winning.

  7. Lewis is right. Every driver must rely on his own mistakes in this world.

  8. This is excellent psychological warfare by Hamilton and Merc, but Verstappen will take great solace that SLH is feeling the pressure too – planting it into the wall at Imola was a huge error and he was extremely lucky to escape unscathed. If that red flag hadn’t been thrown at that precise moment, this whole narrative would be entirely different. Max knows this, and he will come out swinging.

    1. Max needs to start doing some talking of track, especially after winning on track.

  9. “Hopefully you can remember when we were fighting against Ferrari, that is my preferred scenario”

    The last time Hamilton was truly fighting against Ferrari for a complete season, he was driving a McLaren!

    1. ian dearing
      7th May 2021, 13:08

      Maybe he was referring to a few years ago when we thought they were going to be fighting all season, but Ferrari folded like a pack of cards at half time.

      1. Yes, I’d blame ferrari for 2017, the car was no longer that competitive later on and lacked reliability, and vettel for 2018, the car was more reliable and kept performance until after vettel’s repeated spins they went in the wrong direction in development and fell back.

        1. F1oSaurus (@)
          7th May 2021, 18:10

          @esploratore Vettel’s blunders also cost more points in 2017 than issues from Ferrari (Baku, Canada, Singapore, Silverstone, Mexico).

          Besides, it was because of Vettel losing so many points that they lost their lead and that Ferrari had to take more risks on the engine which then led to more material breaking.

          He put himself and the team under extreme pressure to make something of the season when they should have had it in the bag already.

          1. Yes, he no doubt made some mistakes in 2017 too, however I didn’t want to criticize him too heavily cause imo in 2017, if you remember the races when hamilton was much slower than bottas like russia and china, hence didn’t get the max out of the car, hamilton and vettel lost a similar amounts of points through their own fault, while they really made the difference in 2018, with more mistakes from vettel and a more consistent performance from hamilton, with ferrari also being generally more competitive and reliable in 2018.

  10. There are a lot of rather verminous posts in this thread, have to say. It’s what comes of allowing the same person to have multiple accounts, @keithcollantine. Sadly there are some who will post both sides of an argument, insincerely.

    1. I find this very hard to believe, who would they be?

      1. The ones with the same IP address, perhaps.

        As it is, advertising is being sold on the basis of this fake activity, so it’s not quite ethical, apart from making it a waste of time commenting.

  11. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    7th May 2021, 14:06

    You gotta love Lewis. These statements serve 2 purposes. One they serve as a reminder to him and the team that they can I’ll afford any more mistakes and they need to stay on top of their game.

    Second and more importantly they do remind Red Bull and Max that they’ve made mistakes that he’s taken advantage of. A reminder that puts more pressure on them to have a clean race. This pressure usually results in, guess what, another mistake, perhaps a more monumental one. Well played Lewis!

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      7th May 2021, 14:09

      ill afford, not I’ll afford – Apple’s autocorrect obviously imitating Red Bull

      1. @freelittlebirds I don’t think LH has said anything Horner and Max haven’t already said publicly themselves. And at the same time while some may call Max’s track limit breaches mistakes, to Max he was just going for it, and has said he will not change his approach much anyway if he is trailing. He’s still going to try to extract the maximum. Of course it is likely he will heed track limits more, but in terms of mistakes, he is always trying to minimize those anyway, and is not going to settle for second or third by holding back out of fear of not quite keeping it in bounds wherever the stewards decide one day to the next that is, or even mid-race. Countless drivers have gone wide countless times so far this season by just going for it and trying to extract the maximum.

        This all just to say I doubt Max is dwelling on mistakes in a psychological sense like LH would perhaps like him to dwell. I think Max will be sat there just stoked to be so competitive so consistently so early this season compared to every season he’s had so far. And happy to know that if LH needs to play a psychological game, that’s only because Max is a threat. Which LH has acknowledged too anyway. Overall the pressure is more on LH this season to defend his title. If LH prevails that’s more Mercedes (driver/car/team) dominance, no surprise. Everyone predicted it even after a rough pre-season testing. If Max prevails they’ll (Max/car/team) have toppled a giant.

        1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
          7th May 2021, 15:08

          @robbie Surprise!!! – I disagree. Everything I’ve heard is about Red Bull making a run for the championship title this year and backing Max to win it. Horner is saying that they are going to go for it this season. They brought in Checo. Marko is saying that they have to back Max this year.

          Even Max seemed a little bit frazzled after qualifying last weekend and the podium interview with DiResta was also awkward when he heard that Valtteri had stolen the fastest lap from him due to track limits.

          Max is feeling it – he wants to lead the championship. He’s ready and he feels he’s been ready for several years now.

          Unfortunately, the cars are very close in performance and the pressure is going to be massive. Lewis can afford to lose a championship – he has 7 already and is going to hit double centuries in poles and wins and the magical double century combined.

          I think all the pressure is on Max to show that he can win and I just checked wikipedia to look at Max’s early racing history – he hasn’t won a single series before. Winning a series over a season is not easy but winning against Mercedes and Lewis, well, if he ain’t feeling any pressure, then they should check his pulse to make sure he’s alive :-)

          Winning the WDC is going to be tough – I would say it’s going to be near impossible and that’s how Max and Horner need to approach it. Unless he gets very lucky and something happens that propels him to the top, he will have to fight for every inch on the track. He has to limit the heroics but pounce and be clinical when chances appear. If he does that, he’ll stand a good chance of winning.

          1. @freelittlebirds I certainly wasn’t suggesting Max has no pressure on him, and of course they’re going for it. I haven’t and wouldn’t suggest otherwise. To say LH can afford to lose a Championship is to be quite flippant on his behalf, and I have no doubt he and the team are just as motivated as ever to not be beaten now that there might be a bonafide season-long competitor in their midst. So I wouldn’t say ‘all’ the pressure is on Max at all, and of course they both will have pressure and that will only mount if this goes down to the wire and one or the other doesn’t run away with it and seal it up with 3 races to go. I’ve said the pressure is more on LH and I stand by that, for he has the dynasty to not see toppled, so for you to imply the pressure is ‘all’ on Max to me is completely wrong.

          2. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
            7th May 2021, 17:17

            @robbie It seems we’re more in agreement than I expected:-) I feel that LH can miss out on a championship – he’s already managed to get most of the championships against Nico and Vettel and has done tremendously well against Bottas.

            I think it wouldn’t be the end of the world for the Mercedes team if they lost the championships by a few points – I believe they know deep down that it’s best for the sport to have a tight championship. I suspect that they would tip their hats off to Red Bull if that happened.

  12. @Robbie – the pressure is actually all on Max. He is the ONLY one out of all the players involved in this season’s battle who hasn’t won a world championship in a Formula racing series, nor knows what it feels like.

    Christian Horner and Red Bull have won championships, and so has Toto Wolff, Lewis Hamilton, and Mercedes.

    And yes, Hamilton could have retired this year and be happy with his 7 championship achievement. There are rumors that Mercedes ia exiting the sport next year and Toto is also leaving the team. They will also be happy with their achievements, if it is indeed true.

    Even if Red Bull and Horner leave Formula 1 today, they will be happy with their 4 championships. But Max Vesterppen? He still has it all to prove, despite his undoubted abilities.

    Make no mistake, ALL the pressure is on Max Verstappen.

    1. Maybe, but it is Lewis that needs the mental game so he is very worried.

    2. @kbdavies I couldn’t disagree more on several fronts with your silly argument.

  13. Bit of an “out there” assumption but wasnt Lewis simply responding to a question put to him? Crazy thought, I know but possible? Maybe?

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