Lewis Hamilton title chances written off “unless something weird happens” in F1 2023 season
After Hamilton’s hopes of a record-setting eighth championship vanished at the controversial 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, he spent last season battling with his car’s performance and was helpless as 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen racked up a second consecutive title.
The 2023 season-opening 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:F1 Bahrain Grand Prix is just days away but there is an ai✃r of caution, rather than bullishness, around the Mercedes camp.
Kravitz said about Hamilton’♊s hopes of an all-time record eighth championship: “Is that actually going to happen? Because unless something really weird happens, Lewis is not going to win an eighth championship this year, is he?
“The🅘 word at Mercedes is ‘eventually’. Toto said at the launch: ‘ꦫWe have to have a car capable of challenging for the championship eventually’.
“168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:George Russell said used the word ‘eventually’ twice in one 🦩answ🐽er!
“Eventually, eventually…
“They are still catching up from being nine, 10, 11 month�🔥�s behind on last year’s car.”
Hamilton went winless for the first time in his career last season, and Russell took Mercedes’ only victory at Interlagos - but Kra♑vitz believes that even that accomplishment was an outlier.
He said: “Red Bull lost all discipline in Brazil. They fought between themselves, they were off the pace, everything went badly, they shouted at each ot🌺her.
“How quickly things can go right again - R♚ed Bull wen🐻t to Abu Dhabi and said ‘we are going to dominate again’.
“It is going to take another year for Mercedes, a🧔t least.”
Hamilton, now 38, is expected to sign a new deal to stay at Mercedes beyond the expi🧸ration of his current contract at the end of this year.
Their preseason testing pe🦄rformance was patchy - the porpoising that blighted the early stages of last▨ season was seemingly gone, but a memorable image lasts of a forlorn Russell stood staring at his broken-down W14.
Red Bull, ominously, set the pac🍎e and Mercedes fans are left hoping tha🥂t Toto Wolff’s team intentionally hid their true performance.
James was a ⛦sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
