Lewis Hamilton title could have gone to 'five or six' drivers - Flavio Briatore

Lewis Hamilton

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Hamilton title could have gone to 'five or six' drivers - Briatore

The former F1 boss thinks the Mercedes car played a big part in the championship win.

Martin Macdonald

Tuesday 21 January 2020 11:59

Flavio Briatore believes that ‘five or six’ drivers would have had the opportunity to win the 2019 Formula 1 drivers’ championship if they had Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes car.

Hamilton won his sixth title last season which puts him just one behind the all-time record held by Michael Schumacher. Even though the title was won with relative comfort, there is still accusations bent sent to the Brit that the biggest reason for the achievement was his car.

Briatore, while attempting to not take anything away from Hamilton’s victory, thinks there are other drivers, including Fernando Alonso, who would have achieved the same in the same car.

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“Mercedes is an invincible battleship,” the former Renault team principal told Autosprint magazine.

“At least five or six drivers, including Alonso, would have won the title with their 2019 car. But I take no credit from Hamilton, because you still have to beat the teammate at your side.”

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The Italian then went on to comment on the situation at Ferrari, with Charles Leclerc having potentially usurped Sebastian Vettel as the team’s number one driver after his performances last season.

Briatore reckons the Scuderia will have to decide who they favour the most after the first five races of 2020.

“It’s right that Leclerc and Vettel are on equal terms, but after five races Ferrari will have to decide who to bet on,” he suggested.

Speaking on Ferrari again, he revealed that he was twice approached by the Prancing Horse to take over as boss.

“The first was between 1994 and 1995,” he claimed.

“I spoke seriously with Umberto Agnelli, but I was too busy at Benetton, where he also had a stake in the team.

“More recently I talked to Luca di Montezemolo when he was president of Ferrari, but we couldn’t reach an agreement.”