Lewis Hamilton will defeat Max Verstappen and win a record eighth Formula One world championship, according to Aston Martin F1 driver Sebastian Vettel.
Many believe that Verstappen’s Red Bull team will finally break Hamilton’s Mercedes team’s stronghold on F1 after a great start to the 2021 season. Hamilton’s Mercedes team has swept every available title since 2014.
After the first three Grands Prix of 2021, Hamilton holds a slender lead over Verstappen, and Vettel, speaking exclusively to Xinhua, backed the Briton to win the season.
“I think Lewis will come out on top,” the German told Xinhua on the eve of the Spanish Grand Prix at Montmelo.
“He’s probably got that little extra bit of experience and knowledge.”
Vettel is in a good position to remark on what it takes to be successful in Formula One, having won four world championships with Red Bull between 2010 and 2013.
After a series of high-profile mistakes cost him a likely shot at the title in 2018, the German moved to Ferrari in 2015. However, he was unable to break the dominance of Hamilton and Mercedes, and he came in for increasing criticism after a series of high-profile mistakes cost him a likely shot at the title in 2018.
Even worse was to come in 2019, when Vettel was outscored and overshadowed by new teammate Charles Leclerc, and the German was notified by Ferrari that he would not be retained for 2021, even before the dismal 2020 season began.
Though it appeared for a time that the 51-time Grand Prix champion would be on his way out of F1, the newly rebranded Aston Martin team and the deep pockets of its ambitious owner Lawrence Stroll threw him a lifeline for 2021.
“I feel I have something to prove to myself,” says Vettel, whose last win came at the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix. “You are racing for yourself, so in that regard, you [always] have something to prove when you step in the car. When I get in the car, I want to make sure that I’m happy; when I get out of the car, I know I’ve done everything that I can.”
In its previous guise as Racing Point, the Silverstone-based team gained regular points and won the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix in the hands of Vettel’s predecessor Sergio Perez, leading many to believe the team would continue to rise through the ranks into 2021.
The AMR21, on the other hand, has proven a difficult beast to master thus far, with a change in F1’s aero regulations affecting the car’s handling and balance this season. Vettel and teammate Lance Stroll – son of Lawrence – have been stranded in the midfield as a result of the team’s decreased competitiveness, and the German admits that the team’s original goals for 2021 have had to be adjusted.
“Starting the season, we were aiming for third in the constructors’ standings. I think we reset that expectation a little bit, because currently, it’s quite far away. We wanted the car to perform better, that’s not a secret. It’s not doing what we want it to, [and] it’s not quick enough, but we’re working very hard to make sure that it gets better.”
Vettel will at least have an updated version of the AMR21 at his disposal for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, though the German remains cautious on whether this will vault him up the order.
“Naturally it [raises expectations] when you have updates on the car, but you always have to wait and see. For sure we would like to make a step forward, but it’s always hard to say how big that step is, because you don’t know what others are doing. Maybe others have an update as well. We will see.”
Vettel, 33, is undoubtedly near the conclusion of his Formula One career, and his recent activities outside the cockpit show a man with a growing interest in sustainability and environmental issues.
While F1 was on hiatus due to the pandemic in early 2021, the German took advantage of the extra time to do an internship at an organic farm, which included milking cows at 5 a.m., and to help a drive to restore bee habitats.
“I think it’s something that we all have to be involved in,” Vettel says of the desire to be more environmentally aware.
“I think we all have to drive the change and try to do things in a better way. I think it’s a very fascinating topic, mostly because it’s so relevant. It’s not somewhere far distant in the future. It’s happening already and we all have to do something and be interested to some degree.” Enditem
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