Hamilton concern at Verstappen's "big leap"

Ian Parkes

Monday 6 September 2021 08:00

Lewis Hamilton has expressed concern Red Bull and Max Verstappen have taken "a big leap" that has again put him on the back foot in the race for the F1 title.

Across a raucous Dutch Grand Prix weekend at Zandvoort, as F1 returned after a 36-year absence, Hamilton was second best to Verstappen throughout.

After just being pipped to pole, albeit with Verstappen losing an estimated 0.15secs to a DRS failure in the latter stages of his final hot lap, Hamilton and Mercedes had no answer to the Dutch driver's pace in the race to now trail by three points.

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Hamilton is convinced that since the summer break, Red Bull has unearthed a pace advantage to help Verstappen, who has won six of the last nine races overall.

"I think they’ve definitely improved their car with some sort of upgrade in the last race, which we didn't obviously get to see the true pace of it," said Hamilton, referring to a Belgian Grand Prix that was called off after two laps behind the safety car.

With Hamilton not winning a race on genuine pace since the Spanish GP, he added: "We’ve given absolutely everything, I think. Ever since the first race, these guys have just had such a strong car all year.

"We’re trying as hard as we can. We had a couple of races where it looked like we were on par with them, or just slightly ahead, but there’s only been a couple of those, and then it took a big leap and it’s been difficult.

"I guess, it’s so close that you can’t really overtake in a lot of these places that we’ve been to previously because we are so closely matched.

"We just have to keep our heads down, keep working, keep pushing. We are ahead in the team championship which is great but, of course, we need to pick up some speed. That’s what we want, to be able to win races in future."

Hamilton calls for Mercedes to be "on point"

At Zandvoort, although Hamilton kept Verstappen in his sights throughout, he never once got close enough to put his rival under any pressure, never mind attempt an overtake.

Hamilton feels there were also elements of his team's game that should have been raised.

"He [Verstappen] just did a better job all around," added Hamilton. "They were definitely faster.

"There wasn’t really a lot that I could do to answer the lap times he was putting in from stint one. It was very, very hard to keep up.

"And I think Max was just managing from then, whereas I was flat-out, just trying to stay as close as possible.

"I think we probably needed everything to be perfect to even have the slightest chance of getting past him through strategy, for example.

"Pit stops needed to be on point, strategy needed to be on point and traffic also, but none of those three were ideal.

"As a team, we got a second and third, got some really good points on them in the constructors’. That’s a super important one, and we’ll come back next week fighting."