Lewis Hamilton admits he’d ‘love to drive’ F1 rival’s car as he opens up on ‘two difficult years’ at Mercedes
LEWIS HAMILTON has admitted he would love to drive Red Bull’s Formula One car.
Mercedes have had a challenging couple of years since the new era of F1 car designs were introduced into the sporting regulations.
AlamyLewis Hamilton has admitted he would ‘love’ to drive the Red Bull F1 car[/caption]
GettyMax Verstappen enjoyed unprecedented success behind the wheel this season[/caption]
The Brackley-based team have won just won race in the last two seasons, with that sole win coming with George Russell in Brazil 2022.
And that has left seven-time world champion Hamilton without a race win for two years, having previously won a race in every season he had featured in beforehand.
Hamilton showed his quality by finishing the best of the rest in the 2023 drivers championship, but was still unable to snatch a race win thanks to the unprecedented dominance of Red Bull.
Indeed, Ferrari‘s Carlos Sainz was the only driver not in a Red Bull to take a chequered flag this season as Max Verstappen hoovered up a record-breaking 19 race wins and Sergio Perez landed two.
Red Bull brainiac designer Adrian Newey has already claimed their car evolution plan next year will be “so difficult for anyone to catch up”, so Hamilton’s challenge may get even harder.
NOT that the 38-year-old is backing down from the challenge, but he believes every driver on the grid would love driving the “most dominant car of all-time”.
As quoted by F1i.com, he said: “Every driver here looks at the Red Bull car and would love to drive that car, and I am not saying that I wouldn’t love to drive that car and feel how good it is, every driver would feel that.”
However, he also backed Mercedes to recreate the winning formula which allowed Hamilton to land six of his seven world titles.
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He said: “We’ve had two difficult years, and if we work towards beating that car, it is going to be a way better feeling than stepping into the best car.
“That wouldn’t do much for me, in the sense of stepping into the car that is the most dominant of all-time.
“Working with my team to build and be able to beat them, that would be better for my legacy.”
Despite this, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has backed Hamilton to be fighting for the title in 2024, so long as the team deliver a car capable keeping up with Red Bull.
When asked by Sky Sports as to whether they can bridge that gap next season, Wolff said: “New season starts with a completely new car and that gives opportunities but also risks.
“I think we’ve got to be realistic.”
He added: “If we are able to give him the car, then he will be fighting for a world championship.
“I have no doubt. It’s clear that when you have a Formula 1 car like we have now, you are never at ease with it.”
Verstappen broke a number of records with Red Bull in 2023, including the sport’s longest race-winning streak with ten and becoming the first driver to ever lead 1000 laps in a season.
Complete F1 2023 race calendar – details on every Grand Prix this year
