Despite Winning Six Titles With Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton Ranks RB19 as Most Dominant F1 Car Ever

Tanish Chachra | 20/03/2023
Despite Winning Six Titles With Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton Ranks RB19 as Most Dominant F1 Car Ever

Lewis Hamilton has seen an enormous amount of success with Mercedes. With over six titles and countless wins with the Silver Arrows, he has gone on to be statistically the most successful Formula 1 driver ever.

There was a time when he used to get hate just for being too good. But now the tides of F1 have changed, and this year, Red Bull is conspicuously the best team on the grid. The performances by Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen in the season’s first two races prove that.

However, Hamilton goes the extra mile to call the current Red Bull car– RB19, the most dominant car ever. With this statement, he ranks the 2023 car by the Austrian team above all the magnificent championship-winning cars by the Brackley-based team.

Lewis Hamilton hails RB19 as the most dominant car ever

On Sunday, the seven-time world champion finished 51 seconds behind the winning RB19 in Jeddah. This result has prompted him to call their rival machinery the best ever compared to the ‘rest,’ including his own Mercedes cars, which he claims were never so dominant despite being fast once.

“I’ve definitely never seen a car so fast,” said Hamilton. “When we were fast, we weren’t that fast. That’s the fastest car, I think, I’ve seen, especially compared to the rest, I don’t know why or how, but he came past me at high speed.”

Before Hamilton’s statement, many thought the 2020 car by Mercedes- W11 was the best car ever. But the current Red Bull car, with its incredible pace, can dethrone ‘the greatest Mercedes car.’

He didn’t even dare block Max Verstappen

Verstappen, after a technical failure during the Saturday qualifying, was destined to start the race from P15 the following day. The Dutchman cruised over all the cars on his way, and by the halfway mark, he was already P2.

In between, he also got to face his old rival Hamilton, and without any difficulty, he overtook him. Hamilton talking about that phase of the race, confessed that RB19 was so fast that he didn’t even think of blocking Verstappen and making his race slightly complicated.

Though, Hamilton is not alone in Mercedes thinking towards Red Bull like that. Both George Russell and Toto Wolff think Mercedes will win every race this season with that pace.

Russell even claims since Mercedes 2014; he hasn’t seen such a deficit between the top team and the rest of the grid. He isn’t entirely wrong in his assessment. Ferrari, which was seen as the only threat to Red Bull this season, was nowhere near their rivals in Jeddah.

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
Lewis Hamilton Max Verstappen Mercedes Red Bull

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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