Former world champion Damon Hill believes that Lewis Hamilton’s racing pace is still the best in the field of the first category, while Max Verstappen leads the way in terms of speed, and Fernando Alonso reads races better.
After Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, the three most successful drivers in the current field, managed to stand on the podium at the Canadian Grand Prix – for the second time during the 2023 season – many experts tried to compare the three classics. They were also mentioned in a recent broadcast of F1 Nation, where one of the guests was former champion, Damon Hill.
Together with presenter Tom Clarkson, try to find out which of the three heroes is distinguished by what. According to Hill, Verstappen’s raw pace is actually the best, as evidenced by the fact that the Dutchman sometimes likes to go into the “danger zone” for a good lap.
When it came to race speed, there was some debate between the two experts. According to Hill, Hamilton is still the best at this, but Clarkson has suggested that Alonso, who is known to read the races well, may be ahead of his former team-mate. He cited last year’s French Grand Prix as an example, where he deftly braked the field to speed up the wear of his rival’s tires.
Hill partly agreed with him. “Luis would likely work very effectively with their engineers, while Fernando would be fine without his engineers, or tell them what to do rather than the other way around.“, He said.
“Fernando can also make some clever comments during the race while he’s doing other things. I understand what you said about him and the art of racing, but I’m going back to Lewis” he added. “In his case, I think the thing is that he’s able to pull off impressive laps in the races when there’s a need for it. I don’t know if Fernando still has that ability.”
“Therefore, if we tell him during a competition that we have a goal and that goal must be achieved, somehow he always manages to achieve it.– Then note that the aforementioned ‘menu’ can change quickly, because Verstappen has not yet reached his limit.
“When we compare the competitors, we have to say that we haven’t seen the entirety of Max’s career yet. Not that I have any doubts about it. But we have seen what Fernando and Luis can achieve over many years and decades. In the current situation, you would put your money on Max, right? Because he seems to have it all and a bright future ahead of him. Others are already well past the middle of their careers, and most of the work has already been done. The other characters are at different stages of their development. But yeah, Max has it allHe finished.
Max Verstappen (Photo: Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images // Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool)Cover Photo:
Fernando Alonso, Adrian Newey, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton (Photo: XPB)
