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Lewis Hamilton Reckons ‘Mistakes’ are Holding Back Red Bull F1 From Challenging for Race Wins
Lewis Hamilton has had rather straightforward races over the past few seasons, with neither his teammate nor the rival holding the competence to match the Briton’s blistering pace.
However, this season looks to be writing an entirely different story with Max Verstappen rising up as the 7-time world champion’s next challenge. And initially, Red Bull’s pace looked a bit too far-fetched for Hamilton in Bahrain.
But, a strong comeback in Portimao has suggested otherwise, with Mercedes hinting at exceeding their rival’s pace with crucial updates. So, how far is this true? Have Mercedes got themselves ahead of Red Bull? Well, Hamilton has the answer to this.
What did Lewis Hamilton say?
Speaking to Sky Sports F1, the Briton opened up that Red Bull are still very much faster than Mercedes. However, he opined that mistakes are hindering the Milton Keynes outfit from maximizing their potential.
“I think they still have performance on us. They’re just making a lot of mistakes,” Hamilton reckoned. “And we can’t continue to rely on that to get the results we are getting.”
From being a constant podium contender, Verstappen has certainly joined the league of fighting for the title this season.
And considering almost every single critic has rated the Dutchman as a future world champion, their predictions could potentially come alive in 2021. But all that stands between himself and the trophy is Hamilton and his near-perfect team, Mercedes. And it is not going to be an easy task for Red Bull to break their way through them.
There’s a lot of work to do: Hamilton
The 36-year-old reckoned that Verstappen had the pace to beat Mercedes during the qualifying session in Portimao, and not just by a fine margin, but by over 0.2 seconds.
“It’s unknown to us. But in the last race if he finished the lap that got taken away from him, he would have been a couple of tenths ahead,” he said.
“Because of that mistake, it felt like they’ve come closer to us rather than us closer to them. There’s a lot of work to do.”
Either way, this is an exciting battle to watch out for. And this specific duel is definitely going to be the highlight of the upcoming race weekend in Spain. But will Verstappen manage to oust his rival this time around and get his redemption? Well, only the future will tell.
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