Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes Formula 1 driver, identified the true gap between himself and Max Verstappen’s car. He realized the gap between the two car at the Austin F1 sprint race. It exposed the true deficit that Mercedes need to work on for the next season.
At the United States Grand Prix, the seven-times world champion emerged as major race contender to current world champion, Verstappen. The Brit champion managed to take lead from Ferrari driver, Charles Leclerc at the start of sixth lap.
Hamilton’s pace matched Verstappen’s Red Bull car but he continue to struggle as tyres degraded with few laps in. But Red Bull remained at high horse and extended its lead throughout the remaining race.
Mercedes’ champion had no doubts about Red Bull dominance after the race. But he believes his interaction with Verstappen will help the team to build a better car next year.
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“It was a good position to be able to watch what Max’s car was doing, and how it was behaving,” said Hamilton.
“So, I got to watch for a while and see where they are particularly strong, which we can obviously see that on GPS or something like that.
“But still at least [it was valuable] to know where we are, if there’s anywhere we’re stronger, and where we’re weaker, so I can that to my team. And at the end, I think everyone’s tyres were struggling towards the end of that stint.”
Hamilton shared what lessons he learnt from Verstappen. He said: “That we have a lot of work to do. Everyone behind these guys has a lot of work to do.
“It’s no small feat for us to truly catch them for next year. They will be progressing at a steep rate, as they’ve got an amazing development team to make it even steeper for us to be able to close that gap. But I’m going to put 100% faith in my team that we can do it.”
Hamilton believes that Verstappen enjoys half a second pace advantage over its competitors. Such a gap in F1 is huge which can turn things around.
“We’re not in the same league as them at the moment so we’re not in shooting [range],” added Hamilton. “I mean maybe to get second or third, but if Max is on form, there’s no chance.”
