Seven-time Formula 1 world champion Sir Lewis Hamilton has admitted he cannot do anything to prevent Max Verstappenʼs current run of dominant form and is therefore not frustrated.
Two-time world champion Verstappen is well ahead of the rest of the pack in 2023 and equalled Brazilian legend Ayrton Senna’s total of 41 career race victories with another commanding drive at the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday.
It was the Dutchmanʼs sixth win in eight races this season and leads the championship by 69 points over Red Bull Racing teammate Sergio Perez while Hamilton is a huge 93 points behind his 2021 title rival in fourth.
DRIVER STANDINGS ????
A nice gap at the top for Max ????
The battle for second heating up! ????
A solid haul for the Ferraris ????#CanadianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/rGm8OohcM8— Formula 1 (@F1) June 18, 2023
The former McLaren driver is however hopeful he can have battles with Verstappen at some stage like in 2021 when it went down to the wire in Abu Dhabi.
“It’s not a frustration anymore, if it ever was,” the 38-year-old said.
“You know how it is. You know what you are faced with and there’s nothing I can do about their amazing performance.
“It’s likely they will win every race moving forwards this year, unless the Astons and us put a lot more performance on the cars, or their car doesn’t finish.
“It’s not easy with the regulations to chip away or to find the amount of performance that they have advantage-wise.
“They’ve [Red Bull] got to be 30 points up on us in certain points through the lap. We’ve got some work to do.
“It’s not that it’s frustrating. I’m happy to firstly be back in the mix and I’m hoping at some stage we can get back to some of the good races we had in 2021.”
Hamilton finished second in Montreal behind the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso but made it back-to-back podiums in his upgraded Mercedes after finishing second at the Spanish Grand Prix.
