Former F1 driver urges Mercedes to replace Lewis Hamilton with his arch-rival Max Verstappen

The Briton is at the latter stages of his illustrious career, leaving Mercedes in need of a replacement for their star driver soon

Former F1 driver urges Mercedes to replace Lewis Hamilton with his arch-rival Max Verstappen

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen (Credits :Sports Illustrated)

F1 legend Lewis Hamilton has been racing to represent Mercedes AMG for a decade and has achieved unparalleled success with the Silver Arrows. However, he is edging toward the climax of his career, which forces Mercedes to search for alternatives to fill the void the Briton will leave. Former F1 driver David Kennedy believes Hamilton’s rival Max Verstappen would be the ideal replacement.

Speaking to PlanetF1, Kennedy said, “If I was Mercedes, I’d be putting down the money for Verstappen! Hamilton will play out his career as an absolute front-runner but I think, like any driver and disparaging him in any way, at a certain age, you just lose that fraction. Lewis is in that zone. If you were a team that was building and growing, you couldn’t have a better driver. If it’s a team that’s chasing for a championship, he’s terrific, he’s fairly bulletproof.”

YouTube video

He continued, “If you want the best of the best for the future, I think you have to look at Charles and Max Verstappen to build for the future.” Hamilton is currently set to sign an extension with Mercedes. However, it can’t be long before he calls it a day on his F1 career. Verstappen, on the other hand, is only aged 25 and harbors a long-term commitment to Red Bull, contracted until 2028.

This would require an extravagant buyout from Mercedes, should they target Max Verstappen in the coming years to be the heir to Hamilton at Mercedes. The Dutchman is on course to win his third consecutive world title this year and is in the form of his life.

Related: Toto Wolff drops major Lewis Hamilton contract update, reveals timeframe for the much-anticipated announcement

Max Verstappen possesses the ‘key elements’ to replace Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen (Credits: L'Equipe)
Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen (Credits: L’Equipe)

Apart from already showing blistering pace and becoming a regular victor, Max Verstappen is already a two-time world champion aged 25. Already gunning for the third, he is now the dominant force on the F1 grid, dethroning Lewis Hamilton, who claimed the title for the better part of a decade. David Kennedy has pinpointed why Hamilton’s bitter rival is the perfect man to replace him.

He said, “You’re looking at the three elements of a driver: you’re looking at his ability to be able to extract the best from the team and the car. It’s probably not as important as it used to be as the engineers do the vast majority of that now. The second element will be that absolute raw speed that you’ve got, which Hamilton had.”

He continued, “And Verstappen has [that], and then you’ve got the race pace. To lead a team, if you’re looking for next year, I’ve seen it over the years that after 35/36 and getting up in years, you just lose that small fraction of qualifying pace. Your race pace is nearly indistinguishable and you can take that with you going on well up in the years, but it’s that raw speed that you lose. We saw in Monaco that was the game changer that won the race for Verstappen.”

Verstappen displays the ruthlessness and grit required to be a multiple F1 world champion every week. He prioritizes victory and seems to beat the benchmark he sets for himself every week, and in superb fashion. With these facts, despite looking to be the right man to take the reins at Mercedes on paper, his buyout will be substantial, taking major contemplation from Mercedes.

In case you missed it: