Home F1 Hamilton extending his records to make it tough for Verstappen

Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen — BARCELONA, SPAIN - JUNE 04: Race Winner Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing and Second placed Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Mercedes celebrate on the podium during the F1 Grand Prix of Spain at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on June 04, 2023 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool // SI202306040429 // Usage for editorial use only //

Hamilton extending his records to make it tough for Verstappen

16/06/2023

Lewis Hamilton knows Max Verstappen can surpass his F1 records and he hopes he can extend some of it further to make it challenging for him.

In his golden period at the start of the hybrid era, Mercedes’ Hamilton has managed to break and eventually set milestones and records which youngsters will eye to beat in the time to come. The ultimate championship record is tied, though.

He came close to take it in 2021 and go one step up on Michael Schumacher, but it wasn’t to be as his chase is on for the eighth F1 title and become the ultimate driver to beat. For the time being, there’s not many on the list to beat Hamilton.

Sebastian Vettel retired while Fernando Alonso isn’t in the prime position to do so considering Aston Martin is still on the catching up list. Red Bull’s Verstappen remains on the top spot to eventually take away those records and set some new ones.

But a lot will depend on Red Bull’s dominance and the Dutchman’s will to continue racing. In Canada, where Hamilton equalled Ayrton Senna’s pole position record in 2017, Verstappen has the chance to equal Senna’s win record this weekend.

It isn’t bothering Hamilton as such, but at the back of his mind he wants to slow down and make it challenging for Verstappen to break his records. “I really can’t remember off the top of my head about 2017,” said the Brit. “I need to see a video or something like that.

“I’ve got a bad memory. But for me, it was very, very surreal just that being five years old, watching with my dad and the dream was to be like Ayrton. The dream was to get to Formula 1 and do something like him and then to then find that you’re matching equally in terms of results.

“Ultimately it’s unfair because there’s a lot more races in our time than there were back then. But still it was a real honour. I think I got it, they gave me a helmet or something like that, replica helmet, something like that, and so that was very cool. Yeah, Max has been doing an amazing job.

“He’s had such an incredible career so far and he’s for sure going to surpass that. We’re working on getting the car to where it needs to be so we can slow him down. He’s got a very long career ahead of him so absolutely. Ultimately, records are there to be broken. And he’s got an amazing team.

“But as I said, we’ve got to work harder to try and continue to extend it. I hope we get to have some… at least within the last period of time in my career, I hope we get to have some more close racing,” summed up Hamilton.