In the F1 Nation podcast looks ahead to the upcoming Formula 1 weekend together with Tom Clarkson, former driver Damon Hill. It is Mercedes that they believe is the favorite after the latest results. Hill explains why they think Lewis Hamilton and not Max Verstappen is the favorite.
“We’ve seen momentum going back to Mercedes since the British Grand Prix. I didn’t expect Lewis to be better than Max in Hungary, but what a great race that was, for a variety of reasons. .”
Clarkson adds. “It’s bizarre that Lewis has only won one of the last seven races, and that was Silverstone when he and Max hit. Are we talking about the same driver?”
He thinks it could be another one-on-one battle between the two ruffs of Red Bull and Mercedes. “I’m already holding my breath for the opening round in Belgium. Can you imagine that they start in place one and two and go side by side into Eau Rouge? That’s just possible!”
According to Hill, the two must be ordered to rest by the race director. “They have already shown that they are not afraid to fight each other at high speed, but at Spa it is again a completely different level of risk.”
“It’s definitely a concern, so if I had been race director Michael Masi I would say they should respect this track. It’s the fastest track on the calendar and we don’t want to have any nasty incidents like in the past,” he said. he went to the terrible Formula 2 crash in 2019 that killed Anthoine Hubert.
Clarkson thinks Verstappen should be taken aside by his team boss, who should point out to the Dutchman that he needs to score points, not necessarily a win.
“If I were Christian Horner then you have to sit down with Verstappen and tell him that Red Bull really needs a clean weekend because Max has been involved in first lap crashes in the last two races and lost a lot of points. second place at Spa behind Hamilton is a great result.”
Hill completely disagrees with that. “Actually, just not, because in that case he sees his title slowly slipping away. He will not look at this weekend and think he should score points, but he will think he should win again and Lewis should not win. that way he can become world champion. The pressure is on!”
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