The 1996 Formula 1 world champion Damon Hill is of the opinion that the performance of Mercedes’ upgrade package is a vindication for Sir Lewis Hamilton.
The German manufacturer brought their first major upgrade of the season to Monaco and performed well at last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix where the team scored its first double podium of the season as Hamilton finished second behind reigning world champion Max Verstappen while the second Mercedes of George Russell charged from 12th to finish third.
Hamilton after the race in Barcelona said the car was the best he has driven in 15 months which Hill says is a good sign for the Brackley outfit.
“To hear Lewis say, ‘I’ve enjoyed driving the car’, that is a good sign,” Hill said on the Sky Sports F1 podcast.
“It’s also vindication for him because he’s been saying, ‘I told you we should have done something earlier’.
“They’ve gone and done what he’s been pleading with them to do and they’ve seen some progress, so well done Lewis.”
Spanish Grand Prix winner Verstappen also said he would love to fight with Hamilton as both did during the 2021 championship that went down to the wire in Abu Dhabi.
“Yeah, I think it’s great for the sport in general, right, if you have more teams fighting upfront,” he stated. “That’s, I think, what they want to achieve so honestly that would be amazing, to have more drivers really up there, and hopefully throughout the year it will already get closer and maybe next year there are more teams really up there.”
Hamilton finished a mammoth 24 seconds behind his former title rival with the next round of racing heading to Canada in a fortnight.
