Lewis Hamilton has reaffirmed his status as the top dog at Mercedes this season.
Joan Villadelprat, the former manager of the Benetton team, has questioned the caliber of Lewis Hamilton’s former Mercedes teammates. The Spaniard thinks Max Verstappen is better than the rest of the Formula One field because of his dominance over fellow Red Bull star Sergio Perez.
Between 2014 and 2020, Hamilton won the world championship six times in seven years, with Mercedes dominating the Formula One grid. However, he seldom ever outplayed a teammate the way Verstappen has this season against Perez.
Villadelprat, who managed Benetton until 1999, does not put that down to Perez performing below expectations, but rather Verstappen being the best driver around right now. The 67-year-old even criticised a number of Hamilton’s past team-mates, including 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg, who he feels is ‘nothing special’.
“There have been times when Hamilton has been untouchable,” Villadelprat said to Planet F1. “Hamilton is amazing. He’s thoroughly enjoyed his time with Mercedes.
He was fortunate enough to be matched with the paddock’s top engine. I didn’t think [Nico] Rosberg was all that special when you compared him to Hamilton. In qualifying, Rosberg and even [Valtteri] Bottas occasionally outperformed Hamilton, proving that they were not exceptional drivers.
“Max doesn’t seem to have that. He is not even close to his teammate. Furthermore, the teammate is not bad—he has the same level of speed as Russell, Rosberg, and Bottas.”
Villadelprat then bluntly ruled out Hamilton as the best driver on the grid, or even being on the same level as Verstappen, adding: “No [he’s not]. Lewis is making mistakes. The key thing is we don’t know how good the Red Bull is.
“Because you can compare the Mercedes car as [George] Russell is good and he’s there with Hamilton. You can’t do that with Red Bull. Red Bull is Max and Checo is a second behind and he is not a bad driver, he’s a very quick driver!”
Since Red Bull started dominating the rest of the field with their performance at the beginning of last season, fans have not yet witnessed Hamilton and Verstappen engage in a fair fight. But the last time out, the Brit did appear to be closing the gap with the US.
Even though the FIA disqualified him for having an illegally worn skid block underneath his Mercedes, Hamilton still managed to find some silver lining as he crossed the finish line just two seconds behind his longtime rival.
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