Lewis Hamilton believes Red Bull’s performance at the start of the 2021 Formula One season shows that it has produced a championship-winning car for the “first time in a long time”.
The seven-time world champion bridged a qualification deficit to beat Red Bulls Max Verstappen to a narrow victory at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix before the Dutchman hit back with a resounding victory at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Recovering from a rare mistake and finishing second behind Verstappen at Imola, Hamilton believes Red Bull currently has a faster car than Mercedes and expects this year’s title fight to stay on the field.
“I’m looking forward to the battle,” said Hamilton after the race on Sunday.
“I think this is really the first time in a long time that Red Bull has a car that has won the championship. I think it’s going to be tight all year round – and hopefully there will be more and more of these battles. “
Hamilton’s recovery in P2 enabled him to keep a point ahead of Verstappen after the first two laps. However, with 21 races remaining, the Briton recognized the importance of every point until the final checkered flag in Abu Dhabi.
“Without a doubt, going back to second place and getting those points will be very valuable throughout the season,” added Hamilton.
On the subject of matching items
“If I had lost 25 points today, it would be difficult to regain due to the fact that Red Bull is the first time they have a car that has won the championship. Your car is incredibly fast.
“They were faster than us this weekend, definitely in qualifying trim, but it also looks a bit like in race trim. But I don’t know if they made a few mistakes, I think they did, Max did it in qualifying, for example, otherwise he would have been on pole.
“But we have a really close fight and we love the fact that it’s a close fight.
“It’s great to see McLaren back up there after such a long time. It’s great to see Ferrari look so strong that there will be many exciting races ahead of us that will challenge us all in so many different ways.”
On the subject of matching items
While Verstappen was thrilled to beat Hamilton at Imola and to be more than one match for Mercedes in Bahrain, he refuses to get carried away at such an early stage in the season.
“It’s been a very long season,” said Verstappen.
“We just have to keep working very hard. Of course I’m very happy with the result today, but that’s today. I’ll be happy about today, of course, but we’ll start again tomorrow.
“We have to keep improving because there is still a lot of work to be done to be able to do this all season.
“It’s great to fight against Lewis, Mercedes, who I think was so dominant as a team and very hard to beat. To be able to sit here now, two races in a row, we were very, very competitive, that is very promising, but not a guarantee. “
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