'Aston Martin may well win the first races next year'

Reshuffling of the field

The thoughts soon go back to the start of the hybrid era. Lewis Hamilton left McLaren for Mercedes, at that time a team in the sub top. Many people wondered out loud: why is he doing that? In hindsight it turned out to be the right choice, because Mercedes knew how to translate the new regulations into the design of the car.

A rearrangement of the field, it is possible again. "Next year, of course, everything is going to be up side down," says former F1-driver Giedo van der Garde in conversation with GPblog. "It could just be that Aston Martin now has things really well sorted in one go and wins the first few races. You just don't know. It's just whoever has paid the best attention, searched the best for the grey areas within rules, yeah, they build the best car. "

Good that Hamilton is staying

Stability in a team could well be a key factor in the development of the new cars. As one of the few teams, Mercedes is implementing a driver change. "Very honestly, I don't think that's such a big deal," Van der Garde responded. "Russell is really quite good. He has super many qualities, is a guy who can really race fast. I don't see a lot of problems with that. In the end it's good that Lewis Hamilton is still there. He has experience with the team, he can indicate what the car does and doesn't do well and what updates they should bring."