How do Hamilton and Verstappen’s rivals see their championship fight?

2021 Turkish Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton holds the championship lead but his rival appears to be the narrow favourite to take the title among their competitors.

But with just two points separating the pair heading into this weekend’s race, the recurring theme among those asked who will win the title was how hard it is to predict the closest championship fight for years.

“It is a question that is impossible to answer,” said Charles Leclerc. “Both of them are very competitive this year and it’s Max or Lewis that is going to come out on top, obviously.

“But I don’t know, it is very close, and it’s definitely nice for the sport, for Formula 1. I wish I was up there to fight with them, but it’s not the case yet.”

But with seven wins to Hamilton’s five so far, Leclerc suspects Max Verstappen will edge it.

“My feeling is that Max will probably come out on top because it feels like he’s been quicker in more cases than Lewis has been this year. So my feeling is that.

Leclerc suspects Verstappen will beat Hamilton to the title
“But Lewis is an extremely consistent driver and he’s always there when you don’t expect him to be there. So it’s going to be a very close fight. But if I follow my feeling now it’s probably Max.”

Fernando Alonso – a two-times world champion and former team mate of Hamilton – also talked up Verstappen’s chances.

“He seems to deal with the pressure better than other people,” said Alonso. “Every one of us is different, but it seems that for him, it’s not a big deal. Every weekend he takes race by race. So I think that’s the right approach for these remaining races.”

Since Verstappen reeled off a strong of three consecutive wins at mid-season, Mercedes have raised their game. Esteban Ocon, who is managed by Mercedes, therefore suspects Hamilton will beat his rival and claim a record-breaking eighth title.

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“I go for Lewis,” said Ocon. “I agree that the Red Bull and Max there have been a bit faster, but I trust Mercedes to turn that around.”

George Russell, Williams, Istanbul Park, 2021
Russell foresees another title for his next team mate
But he expects “it’s going to be close the whole time” between the two. “I’ve seen a stat where it’s the closest probably has been for a long, long time. So this is great for for the show, great for everybody keeps the wait until the end.

“They are both great drivers and they they push the limit to to fight against each other. So it’s fun. Hopefully we can all be up there to to be fighting for the title next year with the new regulation.”

Hamilton’s future team mate George Russell believes his experience will count in the end. “Mercedes and Lewis have got the experience and have obviously been here seven times before in the last seven years and I think that’s going to play in their favour when it gets down to crunch time.

“Obviously, Red Bull and Max have been incredibly fast all year. Yeah, I think purely because of the the recent experiences probably Lewis and Mercedes.”

While Hamilton’s current team mate Valtteri Bottas observed he still has “a theoretical chance”, he added, “but after me, if I don’t win, then Lewis.”

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Unsurprisingly AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost, who gave Hamilton’s rival his F1 debut, said “I hope Max Verstappen will be king.” Ferrari’s sporting director Laurent Mekies expects he won’t be disappointed.

Raikkonen hopes technical trouble doesn’t decide the title
“It’s a great fight,” said Mekies. “After 15 races or more, there are two or three points apart, so it’s great to see.

“[I’m] probably drawing Franz’s side in saying that we probably see a bit more speed in the latest races with Max. But I’m sure it’s going to be a very tough fight until the last race.”

Whichever driver comes out ahead, Formula 1 has produced its most closely-fought championship for years. Kimi Raikkonen, who won a memorable title fight in 2007, just wants to see the contest decided by whoever is quickest, rather than any technical problems.

“I hope it’s going to be decided on the track and not that one has to have mechanical issue or something that decides it,” he said. “I think it’s doing all the good for the sport to have two guys very close fighting for it.

“I can’t decide but we’ll all find out when the time comes. I would be really boring if we would know at this point.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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12 comments on “How do Hamilton and Verstappen’s rivals see their championship fight?”

  1. It’s a classic young vs old isn’t it. Just today, in FP3 Max was out risking it to the end, while Lewis was keeping his car safe in the garage. At Silverstone, the big swing so far, if they’d been the other way round I don’t think Lewis would have turned in. But on the other hand Max has won a race, or is it two, with an astonishing inlap.

  2. While Hamilton’s current team mate Valtteri Bottas observed he still has “a theoretical chance”, he added, “but after me, if I don’t win, then Lewis.”

    That’s got to be the joke of the day.

    1. @spafrancorchamps
      Why? He does have a theoretical chance and he didn’t say it was anything more than that.

  3. You can tell Bottas is more relaxed at the moment with gems like that.

    I think Hamilton will come through with it but there’s still races to go and who knows what may happen.

  4. Picked Verstappen pre-season, hasn’t been a point since then that I’ve thought he wouldn’t win this year.

    Though, my pre-season expectation was that he’d win with 3 or 4 races to spare. I’d cut that to one or two now.

    1. Doesn’t seem there’s the performance to win that soon, it’s either mercedes winning it with races to spare or going down to the wire.

    2. Car performance ofc, driver wise there’s been no comparison this year, as the rankings here also show.

  5. Redbull had the car advantage for majority of the season with more races coming up (Mexico, Brazil, Abu Dhabi) that will suit Redbull more. Today Max spun in qualifying again but people keep ignoring his mistakes whereas Lewis was under pressure to must get pole position and he delivered in tricky conditions. Max the Golden Boy qualified just tenth and half ahead of an Alpha Tauri with the same engine.
    If Lewis somehow manages to win this championship, there will be no excuse for Max.

    1. I think its actually been very nip and tuck between RB and Merc. It’s been quite track specific on who is quickest. With regards Max and Lewis Lewis though, it has been Lewis making more errors this year. Max has been the faster driver so far, no doubt. He has also been quite naive in some of his driving but this is his first WDC challenge so he can be forgiven somewhat for that. You are correct though! Lewis’ errors have been jumped on and highlighted much more than Max’s, see todays qualifying, but Lewis is the 7 X WDC so maybe it’s warranted? However, If ever there was a driver to pull out performance under pressure, lewis has proven time and time again he is the man. Looking forward to the rest of the season!

    2. @amg44

      Today Max spun in qualifying again but people keep ignoring his mistakes whereas Lewis was under pressure to must get pole position and he delivered in tricky conditions. Max the Golden Boy qualified just tenth and half ahead of an Alpha Tauri with the same engine.

      Comparing this with Russia quali who did screw it more? Also Lewis had his off in Turkey quali too, inconsequential just as Max’s this time round. For many moments of this season as whole, same story, Lewis with the biggest blunders, Max doing minor errors.
      To conclude: selective memory should be LH44 fans’ motto.

    3. There’s plenty of excuses for verstappen: silverstone crash, hamilton imola crash, baku tyre explosion, hungary bottas strike, those are like 50-60 points swings.

  6. As horner has said. “lewis looks the fastest his been all year…” loosely quoted. I believe the table is now turning in Lewis favour. Lets watch this space…

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