Lewis Hamilton title chances written off “unless something weird happens” in F1 2023 season
After Hamilton’s hopes of a record-setting eighth championship vanished at the controversial 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, he spent last season battling with his car’s performance and was helpless as 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Max Verstappen racked up a second consecutive title.
The 2023 season-opening 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:F1 Bahrain Grand Prix is just days away but there is an air of caution, rather than bullishness⭕, around the Mercedes camp.
Kravitz said about Hamilton’s hopes of an all-time record eighth championship: “Is that actually going to happen? Because unless something really weird happens, Lewis is not going to win a🥀n eighth championship this year, is he?
“The word at Mercedes is ‘eventually’. Toto said at the launch: ‘We haveඣ to have a car capable of challenging for the championship eventually’.
“168澳洲5最新开奖结果:George Russell said used the word ‘eventually’ twice in 🐭one 🐎answer!
“Eventually, eventually…
“They are still catching up from being nine, 10, 11 months behind o🌞n last year’s car.”
Hamilton went winless for the first time in his career l🦹ast season, and Russell took Mercedes’ only victory at Inter🍌lagos - but Kravitz believes that even that accomplishment was an outlier.
He said: “Red Bull lost all discipline in Brazil. They fought between themselves, they were off the pace, ev🃏erything went badly, they shouted at each other.
“How quickly things can go right ꦏagain - Red Bull went to Abu Dhabi and said ‘w𝄹e are going to dominate again’.
“It♋ is going to take another year for Mercedes, at least.”
Hamilton, now 38, is ♕expected to sign a new deal to stay at Mercedes beyond the expiration of his current contract at the end of this year.
Their preseason testing performance was patchy - the porpoising that blig🅷hted the early stages of last season was seemingly gone, but a memorable image lasts of a forlorn Russell stood staring at his broken-down W14.
Red Bull, ominously, s🐽et the pace and Mercedes fans are left hoping that Toto Wolff’s team intentionally hid their true performance.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from Ameri🌳can sports, to football, to F1.
