Lewis Hamilton commits to Mercedes until 2025

Former Benetton team manager Joan Villadelprat has questioned the quality of Lewis Hamilton’s past Mercedes team-mates. The Spaniard believes that Max Verstappen’s dominance over fellow Red Bull star Sergio Perez is evidence of his superiority over the rest of the F1 field.

Hamilton won the world title six times in seven years between 2014 and 2020, with Mercedes setting the pace on the F1 grid. But rarely did he dominate one of his team-mates in the way Verstappen has done to Perez this season.

Villadelprat, who managed Benetton until 1999, does not put that down to Perez performing below expectations, but rather Verstappen being the best driver around right now. The 67-year-old even criticised a number of Hamilton’s past team-mates, including 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg, who he feels is ‘nothing special’.

“Hamilton has had moments [where he’s untouchable],” Villadelprat told Planet F1. “I love Hamilton. He has had a very good time with Mercedes.

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“He was lucky enough to get paired with the best engine in the paddock. If you compare [Nico] Rosberg and Hamilton, I didn’t think Rosberg was anything special. Rosberg, and even [Valtteri] Bottas, were sometimes quicker than Hamilton in qualifying, and they weren’t special drivers.

“I don’t see Max has that. His team-mate is not even close. And the team-mate is not bad, he is as quick as Bottas, as quick as Russell, and as quick as Rosberg.”

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Villadelprat then bluntly ruled out Hamilton as the best driver on the grid, or even being on the same level as Verstappen, adding: “No [he’s not]. Lewis is making mistakes. The key thing is we don’t know how good the Red Bull is.

“Because you can compare the Mercedes car as [George] Russell is good and he’s there with Hamilton. You can’t do that with Red Bull. Red Bull is Max and Checo is a second behind and he is not a bad driver, he’s a very quick driver!”

Fans are yet to see Hamilton and Verstappen have a fair fight on track since Red Bull began blitzing the rest of the field with their performance at the start of last season. The Brit did, however, show signs of a shrinking gap in the United States last time out.

Taking the chequered flag only two seconds behind his long-standing foe, Hamilton saw the bright side even after the FIA disqualified him for an illegally-worn skid block underneath his Mercedes.

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