“Happy to see Hamilton at the front”: Max Verstappen ready for a potential Mercedes threat

“Happy to see Hamilton at the front”: Max Verstappen ready for a potential Mercedes threat

Lewis Hamilton(on the left) and Max Verstappen(on the right)

Back in the Formula 1 2021 season, we found a fierce battle between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton consume the entirety of the Championship as the results were only decided after the very last race in the calendar, that is, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. And even the race at Yas Marina was embroiled in controversies because of some decisions taken by the then-Race Director of the FIA, Michael Masi. After such a brilliant battle at the front of the grid, the 2022 season has brought some kind of a peace to the table that the fans were not expecting.

As of now, Max Verstappen is comfortably leading the Drivers’ Championship standings with a huge lead of 80 points. And Verstappen’s closest rival is Charles Leclerc of Ferrari, and surprisingly, not the seven-time World Champion–Lewis Hamilton. Although Mercedes and Lewis put their all into their Championship campaign last year to secure the Briton a record-breaking eighth World title, the team yielded some upsetting results initially in 2022. Owing to those results and a lack of podium wins, the Stuttgart-based team is now third in the Constructors’ Championship, with 30 points between them and Ferrari.

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But Mercedes have made up for their earlier flaws and improved their W13 by a huge extent. In the couple of races that took place just before the summer break started in F1, Mercedes scored double podiums and displayed vast development in their performance. As a reaction to all this, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has said that he is happy to welcome a third team to the Championship battle.

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Max Verstappen is supportive of Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton being back in the F1 Championship game

Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen

Even though most of Mercedes’ Championship campaign this year has fallen short of measuring up to that of Ferrari and Red Bull, the German manufacturer seemed to come through at the Hungarian and French Grand Prix. Last year’s battle between Max and Lewis is still fresh on every F1 followers’ minds and even reigning World Champion Max Verstappen is happy to see his former rival back at the top of the grid again.

While Max Verstappen is supportive of Mercedes showing a huge improvement in the last few races, his reason behind that is purely because of Red Bull’s advantage. He said, “It’s good that they are competitive because then they can steal more points off Ferrari!”

The Dutchman explained that if Mercedes manages to outshine Ferrari now, the Scuderia will have less Championship points to their name, and that will only help Red Bull grab the Championship trophy easily. Thus, the sudden improvement in Mercedes’ results might actually help Red Bull, if Max Verstappen’s plans work out.

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