LONDON (Reuters) – Lewis Hamilton will be fired for a fight with Max Verstappen this season but Formula One ‘s most successful driver may not be in any hurry to promise 2022, according to Damon Hill, world champion in 1996.
The Mercedes Hamilton driver can win the eighth highest competition in the world after winning seven Ferrari giants Michael Schumacher.
The 36-year-old Briton is also expected to be the first driver to win 100 grand prix, his goal now at 95, but his latest contract runs just until the end of this year. and the future remains uncertain.
Mercedes appeared to be struggling in pre-season tests, although there are still some who suspect the team was hiding the real performance, while Verstappen’s Red Bull looked quick and reliable. .
“If it’s a fight between him and Max then I think he’ll enjoy it,” Hill, who is now an all-race British Sky Sports F1 television analyst, told fans -report on video call ahead of Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
“It looks like a transformation of form … my hopes are up for much tighter competition. ”
Mercedes has won the last seven drivers and builders titles, following on from Red Bull who won four doubles in a row.
Hill, who won his title with Williams and retired in 1999 after a difficult final season with Jordan, said it was not easy to know when he would stop.
“In some ways it’s not surprising to me that it’s a one-year contract because … near the end you don’t want to be committed,” he said of Hamilton’s situation.
“The thing is you don’t want to race when you don’t want to, and that’s the situation I found myself in. Half way through the season I was thinking ‘Okay, I want to throw in the towel’ and I couldn’t. ”
Hill said getting into Formula One was difficult but leaving in the right way was sometimes more difficult.
He named former Hamilton team-mate Nico Rosberg, who gave up his days after winning the 2016 title, and triple champion Jackie Stewart who went out on top as well.
“I don’t think Lewis will want to hang around if he doesn’t see the opportunity to really fight to win races,” said Hill, 60.
“I don’t think he wants to win the strongest car and all, I just think he wants to find out he can win races and he knows that he would win competitions if he got that car. “
Major regulatory changes are coming next year, giving competitors hope to end Mercedes’ time, and Hill felt Hamilton, if he was unsure of his future, would want to see what a way in which the wind was blowing.
“He wants as much information as possible which means leaving him as long as possible,” said Hill, who was torn between backing Hamilton and Verstappen for the title.
“I have a strong feeling that Max could do this, that’s how my voice is going right now,” said the Britishman.
“But when we come off this call my feelings return and I immediately realize that I have, once again, disregarded the power of the Hamilton-Mercedes train. ”
Reporting by Alan Baldwin, edited by Toby Davis