© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
After Max Verstappen beat both Mercedes on the track at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton admits Red Bull is going to pose a bigger challenge in 2021.
At the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying Verstappen scored the first non-Mercedes pole position of 2020 and the next day he took a convincing win in the race. With limited car development allowed for next year, Lewis Hamilton believes it is a sign of things to come from Red Bull.
“We’ve obviously got a fight on our hands next year,” the Briton said after the race.
“Without a doubt, these guys are going to be strong, as this car [Verstappen] is driving now is next year’s car pretty much, and the same for us.
“I’m excited for that challenge, and that battle that we hopefully will get.”
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Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin says Mercedes didn’t have the best car on the track in Abu Dhabi.
“Fundamentally today, we didn’t have the best car,” Shovlin said.
“We need to look at whether we could have got more out of it, whether it was an issue with where we positioned it in terms of set-up or whether it’s something to do with this circuit that’s suiting the Red Bull.
“There’s a lot there that simply we don’t understand right, and that’s just going to sit on the job list of things for us to get stuck into over the next week or so.
“We didn’t have a difference in car pace, so in a way, it was lost yesterday, which was a close battle, but looking at it today, unless we had a car on pole, I think we would have struggled.”
