Nelson Piquet has stated that he believes that Red Bull driver Max Verstappen would smash Lewis Hamilton if the two would have been teammates.
Written by- Andrew Lwanga, Edited by-Tanishka Vashee
In an interview after the race last Sunday, the three-time world champion remarked that he believes Max’s aggressiveness could have the edge over Hamilton. “Max is more aggressive.” Said the Brazilian “He may make mistakes more frequently due to this aggressiveness, but in my opinion, he’s better than Hamilton.”
Piquet made sure not to devalue Hamilton’s talent but did question the ability of Hamilton’s present and former teammates stating, “It’s not that Hamilton isn’t good, but he has an inferior driver by his side [Valtteri Bottas] and the previous one [Nico Rosberg] was even worse.” He further stated “Things are too easy for Hamilton to win it all with Bottas by his side as a second driver.”
The former world champion likened the situation to his stint at Williams in 1987 when he won the third of his three world champions. “I won the 1987 championship, and I wasn’t driving like before,” he said “I had the accident at the beginning of the year and had depth of field problems. But I won that championship, with a bit of luck. I should have won in 1986, but won in 1987.”
“But it was so easy. The car was far better than the others. And Mercedes is far better than the others for the past years.”
His sentiments were shared by his son and former Formula E Champion Nelson Piquet Jr who believes Max’s hunger and passion would have the measure of the more experienced seven time world champion.
“I think we have to consider two things: Lewis’ experience and Max’s desire.” Said Piquet Jr “Lewis has been in F1 for 15 seasons and I think that, little by little, you start to lose that desire. On the other hand, Max is coming with a knife between his teeth.”
“Lewis’ experience will help in some areas, but Max’s willingness and aggressiveness is bigger.”
The comments from Nelson Piquet and his son come on the back of the Bahrain Grand Prix where Hamilton and Verstappen dueled for the win with the Briton emerging victorious despite Red Bull seemingly being better than the Silver Arrows for most of the weekend.
Check our first F1 Fantasy Team Analysis here.
Commenti