© Jiri Krenek for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
The Race’s Matt Beer says “Mercedes will surely fight for a championship again before F1’s next massive rules reset”, and “doing so with Hamilton again takes that narrative up another level”.
Lewis Hamilton’s current Mercedes contract runs out at the end of the year. While it is expected that an extension will be signed very soon, the F1 media is still in heavy speculation mode.
In his latest The Race column, journalist Matt Beer says Hamilton staying at Mercedes offers something new and fresh in Formula 1.
“A resurgent Mercedes keeping Hamilton offers something unprecedented in modern F1,”
“When a dominant force is toppled, the driver key to that dominance has usually moved on by the time that team rises again (see Red Bull returning to top form with Verstappen, not Sebastian Vettel), if it ever does (see Williams),” Beer wrote.
“Schumacher and Ferrari swinging back at Alonso and Renault in 2006 is the closest thing to an exception.
“Mercedes getting back on terms with Red Bull and the Hamilton/Verstappen title fight resuming after a pause in which Mercedes was down for the count, and with the very different context of Verstappen now being the defending champion (and the potentially explosive subplot of Russell making it a three-way fight too), is a wonderful prospect.
If you like SilverArrows.Net, consider supporting us by buying us a coffee!
“The 2021 season often leaned too far to the wrong side of the tightrope between enthralling and terrifying that great motorsport rivalries balance on.
“It was also best enjoyed far away from social media and the extreme ends of the protagonists’ fanbases.
“But it was also absolutely glorious. Two teams of such quality, two drivers among the very greatest their sport has ever seen, with so little to choose between them all season and the advantage and championship battle momentum swinging so often.
“It’s what every top-level sport wishes for. It was a privilege to follow it. A rematch is such a tantalising prospect.
“Mercedes will surely fight for a championship again before F1’s next massive rules reset, its weight of recent achievement is too vast for it not to. It doing so with Hamilton again takes that narrative up another level.
“And that’s why after so many years when it felt like Hamilton switching teams was what was needed to reinvigorate F1’s drama level, him staying put now has the biggest potential to do that,” Beer concluded.
