Lewis Hamilton ‘one car’ Red Bull verdict as McLaren title chances assessed

Lewis Hamilton believes McLaren has a chance of challenging Red Bull for the titles, given Sergio Perez’s current form.

The fact McLaren has two drivers scoring significant points will stand the Woking-based squad in good stead in its bid to topple Max Verstappen and Red Bull, believes Lewis Hamilton.

Lewis Hamilton: Not impossible to challenge Red Bull

Red Bull’s outright pace relative to its competition has taken a step back through the second quarter of the season, with even Max Verstappen struggling to score victories with his last win being the Spaniard Grand Prix – the Dutch driver being beaten to the top spot in the four races since.

But while Verstappen has been blocked from standing on the top step of the podium, the reigning World Champion is faring far better than Sergio Perez – since finishing fourth at the Miami Grand Prix, the fifth race of the year, Perez’s best results have been a trio of seventh places.

Perez’s contributions to Red Bull ‘s points score have thus been negligible recently, allowing McLaren to close up to just 42 points in the Constructors’ Championship, while Lando Norris trails Verstappen by 78 points in the Drivers’ Championship.

Norris and Oscar Piastri have both won their first Grands Prix this year and are regular podium finishers as the MCL38 now appears to be the most versatile F1 car on the grid – and Hamilton believes the duo can pose a threat to the hamstrung Red Bull team unless Perez can become a regular scorer again.

“I don’t know,” he said when asked for his thoughts on McLaren’s chances against Red Bull, especially with Norris being 78 points down.

“I mean, it’s been a minute since I was fighting for the championship.

“But I think there was a time I was here where I was 40 or something points behind – 70 is a big number when you’re against a car that has probably very, very close to a 100 percent record. It may have dropped down slightly in one of the races when Max’s engine stopped (sic) in Australia.

“But, otherwise, they’re a very, very highly-performing team. So I mean, it is not impossible, but it is a huge, challenging task, but absolutely not impossible.

“They’ve got two very strong drivers that are able to compete against, ultimately currently in the championship, one car that’s really up there doing a lot of the points scoring on the other side. So they’ve got something they can work with there, for sure.”

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Hamilton’s sentiment echoes the thoughts of McLaren CEO Zak Brown, who believes the Mexican driver holds the key to this year’s titles, depending on how well he performs in the second half of the championship.

“It’s going to be tough,” Brown said in an interview with the BBC , speaking about the prospects for McLaren to win their first title since 1998.

“I think it’s going to come down to the last race. There’s not much between the cars. It’s gonna come down to how does Sergio Perez perform?

“If he can perform as he’s capable of performing, it’s going to be a hard fight. If he continues to perform as he has this year, we have a pretty good chance, because we have two drivers constantly performing at the front.”

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