Lewis Hamilton ‘tipped’ for a repeat of the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix
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Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton, for the first time in his career, has gone 12 races without a single victory. It is not really through any fault of his own: The car has just not been good enough. The W13 is comfortably the third-best car on the grid, and that has consistently been the case everywhere, which is why they have a HUGE cushion over fourth-placed Alpine.
But they also have a 126-point gap to Red Bull, who currently lead the championship. However, on pace, they have generally been nowhere near the pace of the top two teams, Red Bull and Ferrari. Notable expectations were in Silverstone, where Lewis Hamilton looked like a genuine contender, and perhaps in France, where both Mercedes finished ahead of Sergio Perez, who had struggled all weekend.
One thing Mercedes have done incredibly well is reliability. Whenever the top two have faltered, they have been there to take advantage. They did so in Bahrain, where they finished 3-4 despite being nowhere near that pace, and have continued to do so on the many occasions that the Ferraris have had an issue with their engines or have crashed out. In France, Mercedes finished 2-3 for the first time.
Norbert Haug sees positive signs for Mercedes
Mercedes right now are in a similar situation to what McLaren were back then. The first part of the season had been dominated by Brawn GP’s Jenson Button, who won 6 of the first 8 races of the season, before Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber following him were able to put a stop to that streak. McLaren, on the other hand, had been unable to even finish on the podium in any of those races.
Before Hungary in 2009, Lewis Hamilton had not even scored points in the last 5 races. But that changed in Hungary with the arrival of upgrades, and Hamilton snatched victory in Hungary. The rest of the year fared much better for McLaren, with Hamilton with 3 podiums and one more victory.
Lewis Hamilton has won eight times at the Hungaroring, and he has been tipped to do so for a ninth time by Norbert Haug, Mercedes-Benz’s former Motorsport VP. Back in 2009, Haug had been head of Motorsport at McLaren, who used a Mercedes power unit. Haug thinks that Lewis Hamilton can repeat his feat from 2009.
As reported by PlanetF1, Haug said: “After a year without a win up to that point, we managed a few upgrades and then managed the first KERS victory. That was historic.” adding that “It would be a nice repeat?” Haug also sees positive signs for Mercedes moving forward into the last 10 races.
Indeed, Mercedes are only 44 points behind Ferrari. P2, at the very least, is still a very real possibility, even if they do not look near on pace. This possibility has only happened due to Mercedes’ incredible reliability and the Ferrari’s lack thereof. With a victory in Hungary, Hamilton would also break another record: He would be the first racing driver to win a race in Formula 1 after completing 300 Grands Prix.
Also Read: When Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton’s fall out led to a Budapest bust up for McLaren in 2007
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