In 2021, Max Verstappen won his first world championship after a season-long battle with Lewis Hamilton. This was the season where he defeated Hamilton and this made the Red Bull driver a hard rival of the seven-time world champion. Verstappen stopped Hamilton from having his eighth world title and unleashed a whole new level of dominance. Still, the Mercedes driver is happy. However, Hamilton at the same time, recently fired a warning to Verstappen, as per Motorsport Turkey.
Verstappen has been the definition of dominance this season. Apart from having a ten-race winning streak, the Dutchman has 13 wins in his tally out of 16 races already. He is also so far ahead in the championship that he can seal his title win with five races to spare.
Meanwhile, Hamilton has failed to show what he is capable of in F1. As Mercedes failed to provide him with a competitive car that can challenge Red Bull RB-19, the Briton has been mostly off-color. Nevertheless, he believes that he can come back next year. Because of this, he fires a warning shot at Verstappen.
Lewis Hamilton warns Max Verstappen ahead of next season
Red Bull Racing upgraded their RB-18 and built a car that saw them win 14 consecutive races in 2023- the RB19. Except for Singapore last month, Red Bull was on the top step of the podium in practically every single race.
On the other hand, Hamilton started the season with a bunch of average performances. Despite this, Andrew Shovlin and his team made a decent comeback and closed in to take P2 in the championship standings, which could also be under threat because of Ferrari’s charge.
This led to the British driver, who congratulated Verstappen on his dominance, having high hopes ahead of the next season. He also fired a warning shot at the soon to be three-time world champion. He said as per Motorsport Turkey, “Keep up the good job, but we’ll be back soon too.”
Where do Hamilton and Mercedes stand in the championship?
Lewis Hamilton, who wants to race for many years more, made a decent recovery in this year’s drivers’ championship as he has overtaken his arch-rival Fernando Alonso recently. The seven-time world champion currently occupies P3 in the championship standings with 190 points and has less than half of what Verstappen claimed.
As for Mercedes, their routine failure made them fall back in the Constructors’ championship. With that, Ferrari has also closed in on the championship in P3.
Nevertheless, Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes have all eyes set on 2024 as 2023 already has it’s winner. As for the driver, he has high hopes from the W15, an will be looking to win his eighth championship.
