Sorry mate but that’s absolute bollocks.
Mercedes threw everything behind Lewis the moment Rosberg packed his bags. They, like Reubens and Michael, have zero interest in Bottas winning except to ensure they win the constructors.
They may have the best driver on the grid in the best car, but there are a number of drivers that would produce the goods in that Mercedes.
I don’t think there are any other drivers who would produce the goods in the consistent way Hamilton has. He makes it look easy. He never caves under pressure. The amount of times he’s brought the car home for a win or podium finish with stripped tires is insane. He just does it race after race after race, season after season. He’s a phenomenon. There are lots of drivers who could do it for a race, or even a season, but to do it year after year as he has, is pretty much unrivalled.
His brilliance gets regularly dismissed as having the best car, which really does his momentous achievements a disservice. It’s borderline disrespectful, and you wonder if a white driver would have to face the same level of scrutiny and doubt. In an age where media focus on driver behaviour is relentless, I have always appreciated Hamilton’s classy persona and stand for equality. It contrasts markedly to Verstappen, who despite being a great driver, is already on record calling fellow drivers “p*ssy”, “ret*rd” and “Ihni binni dimi diniwiny anitaime*l”. But likely because of his ethnicity, he gets a pass.
As for the car, the Red Bull is set up for Verstappen. All their second drivers have to adjust to his set up, and adjust their driving style. Perez said as much recently. They are all in on Max as is obvious in all the behind the scenes footage, as well as comments directly from Horner. Mercedes just produce the best car they can, regardless of the driver, and It’s only because of Hamilton’s individual brilliance that he’s always ahead of Bottas, not the set up of the car. In fact we’ve seen many times Bottas grabbing poles because he can be lightening quick over a single lap and isn’t disadvantaged by having a favoured team mate in set up and design. He just doesn’t have the consistent brilliance of Hamilton or the nerves of steel to do it 60-70 times in a row under pressure and produce the same race results. When Hamilton is consistently quicker across a race, and has a chance of winning, and Bottas isn’t posting that pace, of course they ask him to move over. But they don’t give him a disadvantaged set up.
So I don’t think it’s bollocks at all. I think Hamilton is that good, that experienced, consistent and canny, that you could put him in the Red Bull and he’ll still win the title; or you put him in the McLaren and he competes for it. Even in the first two races of this season where the Red Bull was clearly a lot faster, Hamilton found a way to pull it out of his arse to be competitive and even win one of the races, when realistically given the pace of the two cars, he had no right to.
Verstappen is a great driver but he’s not Hamilton’s level yet, and there’s no guarantee he ever will be. This is even as Hamilton nears the end of his career and Verstappen is around his peak. This year with a car that’s just as good as the Merc, and sometimes better, and with a team focused purely on him, catering to him, and a car built to suit just him, he really should be winning the title or taking it to the wire if he’s as good as so many seem to say he is. Now with Red Bull poaching half of Mercedes technical team, maybe they’ll find a way to break Hamilton.
Red Bull constantly throw away a meaningful constructors challenge because their second driver is an after thought, as Horner basically fellates Max with gleeful abandon. His favouritism to his golden child does the team a disservice IMO.
Red Bull burned through three really talented young drivers in Ricciardo, Albon, and Gasly in order to feed Horner’s Verstappen fetish. And now they are poaching most of Mercedes garage and technical department to try and take the next step. I have to say that I am generally not a fan of their team, management, or approach, whilst still being able to appreciate the talent of their driver line up. But this shouldn’t come as a surprise when their team principal is someone as narcissistic and self involved as Christian Horner.
