01 August 2023 , 12:37
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Lewis Hamilton has claimed that Max Verstappen would not be dominating Formula 1 this season if he was driving Sergio Perez's car instead of his current Mercedes.
Verstappen is well on course to win his third consecutive F1 world title this season, having won the last eight consecutive races and racked up a whopping 314 points. His Red Bull teammate Perez remains 125 points behind him in second place and Hamilton has taken a swipe at the Mexican for failing to compete with Verstappen.
Speaking after the Belgian Grand Prix, Hamilton said: "At the moment, it's impossible to beat the Red Bull unless they don't finish. They're eight-tenths to one second faster per lap than everybody else.
"It is what it is. There's nothing I can do about it. Do I want to be as fast as them? Of course. Would I like to have a car that's as fast as them? Of course. If I was in Sergio's car... Max would not be having the same time he’s having now."
Verstappen finished 22 seconds ahead of second-placed Perez in Belgium and the 33-year-old said after the race the margin of victory was due to Red Bull being "too aggressive with the car setup". Speaking to Sky F1, Perez explained: "Especially on that second stint he pulled away, good gap, and then I went off into Turn 11 and the gap got bigger.
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"So from that point onwards it was all about making sure that we brought it home, because we were a bit too aggressive with the car setup, you know not having any practice so it was important just to make sure we would bring the car home.
"I mean, there's nothing to be taken away from Max certainly. He did a tremendous race and he has done a tremendous season. But the gap looked bigger today due to the reasons that I just mentioned, because we had to make sure we brought it home once the result was settled.
"But certainly, he has done a tremendous job and he's very talented. I think around this team they're getting the maximum out of the weekends, weekend after weekend, which is really impressive."
Perez is how hoping to put up more of a fight in the second half of the season when F1 returns from a summer break for the Dutch Grand Prix later this month. "That will be my target," he insisted.
"We have this summer break to make sure we get on top of things. We have a bit of time and hopefully, we are able to find something that can bring us to the form we had earlier in the season."