Hamilton looks ahead to Styria: "Maybe we can give Red Bull a run for their money"

F1 News

21 June 2021 at 20:01
Last update 21 June 2021 at 21:03
  • GPblog.com

It won't have happened to Lewis Hamilton very often in recent years: being passed on the penultimate lap of a Grand Prix. Despite not having a bad race, the Briton had to concede to Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing, who used a strategic masterstroke to snatch victory from Mercedes at the very last minute.

Hamilton's mind games?

Lewis Hamilton has been around in the Formula 1 world. For example, he has solemnly sworn for years that he never plays psychological games, but former teammate Nico Rosberg decided to completely drop out of the sport after finally becoming world champion. One of the reasons given by the 2016 world champion was Hamilton's mind games.

Ahead of the race in France, Hamilton also handed out some pinpricks. He was one of the few who sided with Pirelli after the debacle in Baku. Previously Hamilton complained several times about the flexible rear wing of the RB16B.

New Honda engine

In the post-race press conference at Paul Ricard, Hamilton was asked about his prognosis for the Styrian race, and this time Honda's new engine was a talking point for the Brit: "It's a circuit that demands a lot of power, with those long straights, so we could see something similar to this weekend, obviously with the Red Bull's speed now on the straights, but we have three days to try and make adjustments and improvements and maybe if we can maximise absolutely everything, we might hurt them."