Hamilton 'unwilling to accept' Verstappen pressure?
Apr.29 - Lewis Hamilton is struggling to cope as he finally faces a serious challenger to his recent run of utter dominance in Formula 1.
That is the claim of Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko, who thinks Max Verstappen's pace is the reason that Mercedes' Hamilton is suddenly making key mistakes.
"He had no consistent opposition before, but he has that now with Red Bull and Max Verstappen," team official Marko told the German broadcaster n-tv.
"Apparently, and understandably, we now see this reaction," the Austrian added. "That means that we have to keep up the pressure, if not increase it."
Marko said he was surprised to see how hard Hamilton defended his position from Verstappen at the start of the most recent race at Imola.
"It was astonishing to me that Hamilton did not give in on the outside line in the first corner at Imola, because it was clear that he could not win this duel," he said.
"That shows that Hamilton is unwilling to accept this opposition. Instead, he opposes it massively and with great vehemence."
Marko, though, insists that Mercedes remain favourites for the 2021 title, even though Toto Wolff says his own team "still doesn't have a power unit to rival the Red Bull-Honda".
Marko says: "If they have time to fully charge the batteries and access all of the electrical energy, there is still a certain advantage on the Mercedes side."
The Austrian also reports that Red Bull has touched down at Portimao with car updates.
"I believe this will be the order of the day with both Mercedes and us pushing development of the 2021 car at full throttle until the summer," said Marko.
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Im sure Marko thinks the BS that spews out of him mouth @nu5 smells and tastes like strawberries!!
Max forced Hamilton off the track at the start of the race and lewis overtook Russell at the worst possible part on the track.
Its 2 races in, Hamilton is still leading and i doubt for 1 second that he's worried about Max. He has taken on the best and beaten them all, so this arrogant little boy will be no different
I cant wait for the BS Marko says at the end of the year when Hamilton is victorious.
didnt lewis know it was the " worst part of the track then? " oh dear,silly Lewis as the goat , id have thought hed have known that.
Love to all xx
Oh so you are one of those people. The GOAT cant ever make a mistake at any point in their career especially towards the end of it??
Well by your logic MAX cant ever be the GOAT, his list of mistakes is longer than Hamilton's list of wins :)
LOVE TO ALL TOO xx
Don't try making sense, the bowed crowd won't tolerate it.
Prat...... mmmm no its too obvious, now lets all play nicely except that arrogant MV
To be honest if anyone is under pressure it is Dr Marko. A few car failures, as per normal with red bull, and Max will be checking his contact causes before going to Mercedes
I agree, thats probably why he talks to much cr@p about everything.
Max will never go to Mercedes while Hamilton is still racing there. They would knock chunks out of each other and it would be worse than it was with Rosberg because Max is much better than Rosberg and probably the closest to Hamilton's level of skill
Agreed but if ineos and merc pressure toto, hell have to take mv, fire vb and take gr, it can be spinned as a new beginning, after all they are the future for merc surely
I doubt Mercedes would sack Hamilton, He is worth his weight in diamonds to them plus he is a proven multiple world champion and he keeps winning.
Max is amazing but has yet to prove he can handle the pressure of fighting for and winning a WDC.
It makes much more sense to take George next year to partner Hamilton in to the new era of cars and see how he does and that battle would likely decide Hamiltons future. If he spanks George he knows he can still fight the new young talent, if George spanks him he knows its time to retire.
Then Mercedes could sign Verstappen....if he wants to go there?
Who knows what will happen but its looking like exciting times ahead
i doubt theyll sack LH but my guess is if he wins this yr he will want to retire at the top, if merc wont pay his 40 M a yr why should he carry on, either way , 22 onwards should be much closer than even this yrs is looking
hasnt it already been said that Max has a break clause in his contract for end of 21? With the cash merc will save when hamster stops they can easily buy max out of his contract, i heard somewhere from someone in F1 , you cant force a driver to drive for you..!!, thats my take on 22 MV and GR, , thats what Supremo Zac B said so it must be true, maybe lol
Marko is the master. If he hasn't heard a good rumour he will start one. His Dr title is Doctor of Head Games... ;) Dr Helmut Marko, Hg.D
I love the way everybody gets all twisted over Marko's comments. Doesn't anybody get it, he is a huckster. Just read him and laugh.
Make your mind up time Lewis, off the bbc f1 page
Lewis Hamilton says he intends to remain in Formula 1 for at least another season after this year.
The seven-time champion signed a one-year deal with Mercedes at the start of 2021 but said on Thursday that he "plans" to be in the sport next season.
He said he was "enjoying" his title fight with Red Bull's Max Verstappen and was determined to continue to fight against racism and for diversity.
Hamilton added: "I don't know how long I can stay, though. We will see."
How to follow the Portuguese Grand Prix on the BBC
His revelation about his wish to continue in F1 came in answer to a question about his participation in a tyre development test last week.
"I plan to be here next year and I want to help Pirelli in helping them towards having a better product," he said.
"The drivers have wished for a more [high] performance tyre. So it was important to see where the starting point is and what differences I can help so we have more mechanical grip, less degradation."
Asked to expand on his plans for the future, the 36-year-old said: "I am pretty spontaneous so it could always change. I am enjoying this battle we are having. It is getting more exciting. It has been even more of a challenge.
"I continue to love working with this team, and it is encouraging to see the steps my team are making to becoming more inclusive and more diverse.
"They have announced one of the initiatives we have within our organisation and we still have a lot of work to do as a sport.
"There are still many teams that continue to stay silent and many people who are not particularly being held accountable and there is still a lot of work to do within this sport and I know that being here I have more of a chance of helping to change that than not."
Before the Portuguese Grand Prix, Mercedes have announced a partnership with the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers in the UK to support people from a minority ethnic background develop careers in engineering.
The team earlier this year set up a joint foundation with Hamilton to promote diversity, while a commission the driver set up last year to look into the lack of ethnic involvement in maths and science subjects will report in the summer.
Hamilton added that he was likely to take part in the boycott of social media platforms many sports are operating this weekend as a means of putting pressure on the companies who run the websites to do more to combat racism and abuse on their platforms.
Lets see how the season goes, if Red Bull with the Honda Engine stay close to Merc in Speed Max will out perform Hamster. That being the case Hamster will retire, Hamster won't race against Max unless he has a significant advantage. Just an observation. la Ruse
i get so confused is he a Hamster or a Goat?, oh never mind, let the games begin hehe
How do you know when Marko is talking shit? His lips are moving. What he doesn't know he will make up.
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