Max Verstappen would be faster than Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, claims ex-F1 driver

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Max Verstappen would be faster than Lewis Hamilton if he left Red Bull and joined Mercedes.

That is the opinion of ex-Formula One driver Marc Surer, who believes that the Drivers’ Championship would be much more competitive between the pair if Verstappen was with the Silver Arrows.

Hamilton, should he sign a new contract, is scheduled to return to Mercedes in search of his historic eighth world title.

However, the Brit’s dominance, winning six of the last seven world titles, has been built on a superior machine, and Surer believes that Verstappen would close the gap substantially and even surpass Hamilton if he had the same tools at his disposal.

“I think Verstappen is one of the fastest young drivers in Formula One, together with [Charles] Leclerc,” he told Formula1News.

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“So I think he will be faster than Hamilton because Hamilton used to be.

“But after the age of 30, you start to lose a few hundredths of your speed. You will not notice it but this is the truth.”

Surer did, however, say that the championship would be extremely tight between the two, with Hamilton’s added experience, race-craft, and strategy paying dividends.

“But that doesn’t mean Verstappen would beat Lewis Hamilton easily,” he added. 

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“Because if you look at the past, for example if you look at Prost-Lauda [when they were team-mates at McLaren], Prost was clearly faster than Lauda, but Lauda in one year won the Championship by being clever and having a better strategy.

“So, with experience, you can sometimes beat a younger, faster driver. The same also happened with Senna and Prost.

“So it’s not clear if Hamilton or Verstappen would win the Championship [as Mercedes team-mates].”

Previously, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner argued that Verstappen is superior to Hamilton, and that George Russell’s performance at the Sakhir Grand Prix in the Mercedes proved it.

“I think he is the best, yes,” Horner told RacingNews365 when asked about Verstappen’s talent. “Russell’s performance at Mercedes confirmed that for me.”

“Max and Lewis stand out for me, but while we absolutely should not be blind to all that Hamilton has achieved, he does have access to a good package while Max has to get more and more out of his car.”

“You can see that by the fact that a driver from Williams qualified directly on the front row of the grid and almost won the race. If someone had to get into Max’s car, if he had coronavirus, they would never reach his level of performance.”

Who is superior of the pair, no one really knows at this stage. But one thing is sure: Hamilton will be eager to put Verstappen and everyone else in his rearview mirror in 2021.

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