Lewis Hamilton knows a thing or two about winning World Championships, having emerged victorious in most Title battles he has been a part of to date. As such, his experience tells him that McLaren – despite its strong progress – will fall short of dethroning Red Bull for the Championship.
Hamilton points out that Lando Norris, McLaren’s star driver, is too far behind Max Verstappen to mount up a proper Title challenge. “70 is a big number when you’re against a car that has probably very, very close to a 100 percent record”, he says.
With 10 races to go, making up that gap would be very difficult for Norris, unless the RB20 develops some major concerns in the reliability department.
‼️Sir Lewis Hamilton was asked about ‘McLaren’s chances against Red Bull, especially with Norris being 78 points down.’ :
“I don’t know, I mean, it’s been a minute since I was fighting for the championship.”
“But I think there was a time I was here where I was 40 or something… pic.twitter.com/Y3AxRawDhH
— sim (@sim3744) August 10, 2024
Hamilton explains how Red Bull is one of the top-performing teams. The gap between them and McLaren, although small, would be extremely difficult to close, according to the seven-time World Champion.
“I mean, it is not impossible,” he adds. “But it is a huge, challenging task, but absolutely not impossible.”
Per Hamilton, Norris and Piastri can work together to help the team. Even more so, because Red Bull has just one driver competing at the front, owing to Sergio Perez‘s horrid form. If McLaren’s teamwork prevails, they can take home the Constructors’ Championship.
Can Mercedes challenge McLaren and Red Bull?
Mercedes has emerged victorious in three of the last four races, with George Russell winning one and Hamilton the other two. In terms of form and results, they are the best in F1 at the moment. But, they have some catching up to do if they want to dream of the top stop.
Mercedes has 266 points at the moment, which is 142 fewer than Red Bull. They are P4 in the Title, 79 points behind Ferrari, which is mainly because of the Silver Arrows’ dismal start to the season.
Theoretically, they are still in the race. However realistically, the teams ahead of Mercedes – Ferrari, McLaren, and Red Bull – would have to drastically falter, with multiple DNFs for the Brackley-based team to even enter the mix. Even then, it may not be enough.
