Max Verstappen Closes in on Breaking Lewis Hamilton’s Mammoth Record, according to F1 Pundit

When we go racing in Miami, it will be an 882-day gap since Lewis Hamilton won his last race. Before 2022, he had never gone a season without a race win, and currently, he is in his third season of the ongoing winless spell. Hamilton last won a Formula 1 Grand Prix on December 5, 2021, at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, and since then his 103-win mark seems carved in stone due to its unchanging nature. On the other hand, Max Verstappen, who had 5 wins when we went racing in China last time in 2019, is closing in on the 60 mark. Can he break Hamilton’s record?

It took a driver 14 years to break Michael Schumacher’s 91-race win record. It was Lewis who did it in 2020, but not stopping at that, he went ahead to plant a mammoth record (103 wins) for himself, which remains unbroken. But with how Verstappen is progressing, he might do it sooner than expected.

Jennie Gow, Harry Benjamin, Formula E driver Sam Bird, and BBC F1 Correspondent Andrew Benson discussed the Chinese GP on F1: Chequered Flag Podcast. As expected, the discourse soon went on to discuss Max Verstappen’s dominant form. Talking about how dominant he is and how he is just the obvious winner in every race on board that beastly machine built by Adrian Newey, the hosts said that the reigning world champion will not be far off from Lewis Hamilton’s all-time win record when these regulations end and “would only still be in his mid-20s”.

And Lewis Hamilton has been stuck on that 103 mark for more than two years now. Though it keeps going wrong in every race, why did it go so horribly wrong in Shanghai?

Former F1 Mechanic shares his take on Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes’ “desperate” attempts

Mercedes is on a downhill journey, which they have not been able to curb despite several attempts. From blame games to drivers, taking setup into their own hands, it is just chaotic. At the Chinese GP, Lewis Hamilton qualified 18th. Imagine a six-time winner around the circuit qualifying that low. But why did that happen? It is because Lewis interfered with his setup. Marc Priestley, who worked with Hamilton at McLaren, explains the situation.

He said, “I think the point is, first of all, they are desperate. They have a car that just isn’t working and they are really struggling to get anything out of it. Lewis is in his final year with the team. Of course, he wants to get some kind of result out of this. He knows he’s not going to win the championship, but he does want to try to unlock something that will give him a chance to perform. He’s not just checking out already and desperate to leave. I think there’ll be a huge amount of frustration, but I think he genuinely would love to find a way to turn that car into some kind of good result.”

What are your expectations for the next race in Miami?