F1 News: Former Driver Champions Lewis Hamilton To Be Back On Top In 2023
Former F1 driver Johnny Herbert has spoken about the upcoming 2023 season for Mercedes and has championing Lewis Hamilton to finish above his teammate George Russell.
Mercedes had a difficult 2022 season with many issues on the W13 cars. The team managed to make some significant developments towards the end of the season which saw Russell take his first F1 win at the Brazilian Grand Prix, which was also the only win for the team in the year.
The Mercedes team have since revealed that seven-time champion Hamilton asked the team to carry out more of the tests and data collection on his car to give Russell more of a chance in his first year with the team. Despite this, Russell showed a fantastic performance throughout the year being branded Mr. Consistency for finishing in the top five for nineteen out of the twenty-two races.
During an interview with Total-motorsport.com, Herbert has spoken about the 2022 season for Hamilton. The former driver explained that he probably wasn't in the right mental state at the beginning of the year after finding the car was not going to perform when he wanted to "come back in fight mode" after the controversial 2021 Abu Dhabi GP. He said:
“I think Lewis started last year probably a little bit frustrated, knowing the car wasn’t great.
“I don’t think he had the right mental approach because he was probably frustrated, as a racing driver would be as a seven-time world champion, trying to get [that] eighth, which was taken away from him.”
Herbert went on to explain that he believes Hamilton will be back on top within Mercedes in 2023. He continued:
“Now that opportunity has reset to get himself mentally and physically prepared [for this season]. It’s a good thing, maybe for Lewis, knowing that the pressure is going to be really hot from George.
“It can be a very positive thing for a driver to know your team-mate is going to be strong, be pushed.
“You know you need to up your game straightaway. Lewis has done that in the past but he’s coming to the end of his career.”
The former race winner concluded:
“Things change as you get older and when you have a young whisperer coming in, who’s hungry for that success, there is going to be a crossover at some point.
“Will that be this year? I would be surprised.
“But I think it’s gonna be a mighty, tight tussle with George very hungry to try and take the reins away from Lewis, who won’t give up very easily as well. That’s what we want."