Max Verstappen warned over ‘super aggressive’ Lewis Hamilton with Mercedes comeback tipped

Lewis Hamilton to change his name

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

Max Verstappen has been warned about rival Lewis Hamilton becoming ‘super aggressive’ to get back into the title race. The opening two races have been a struggle for the Mercedes star, especially last week’s Grand Prix in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, when the Briton crossed the line in tenth.

The Silver Arrows are struggling to extract the maximum amount of pace from their car and so far have failed to eradicate porpoising. Just two races in, Hamilton is already well off the pace in the title race, but former F1 driver Pedro De la Rosa thinks the Brit will turn into the Verstappen of last year in order to catch up.

“At one point Lewis and Mercedes will come back for sure, how will Max race against this. It will be different. Then Lewis will be last year’s Max,” the Spaniard told the F1 Nation Podcast. “He will be super aggressive towards Max, where Verstappen will think more about the championship. It will be a different Max.

“I don’t think that Max only drives differently against Leclerc because they have been karting with each other.” In 2021 the Dutchman raced very aggressively with Hamilton as he endeavoured to defeat him for the world title.

JUST IN: Max Verstappen concerned F1 demands may derail bid to beat Charles Leclerc to title

He even referred to the Red Bull star’s duel with Leclerc in 2019, when he was very aggressive and had nothing to lose. “He’s racing like a true champion now. He has to defend the crown and think about points.

“Do you remember when they fought in Austria? Those were the same drivers and then Verstappen was extremely aggressive towards Leclerc because he had nothing to lose and wanted to win per se.” Mercedes have been tipped to bounce back from their tough start to the season, and George Russell believes the team’s lap times will see a significant decrease if they can eradicate porpoising.

“It’s tricky because we’re putting all of our effort into solving this porpoising issue and it’s not allowing us to focus on other things,” he said, quoted by RaceFans.net. “We have the porpoising issue. The only way to run is to raise the car very high. And obviously with this ground effect car we lose all of the downforce.

“So we know that if we can get the car on the ground there is a huge chunk of lap time there. But we can’t achieve it at the moment. It’s all well and good saying that, but we can’t physically achieve that right now. So we need to have a rethink.”

Source: Read Full Article