01 December 2023 , 07:00
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David Coulthard has questioned whether Lewis Hamilton is capable of adding to his seven Formula 1 world titles.
The Brit was cruelly denied an eighth in 2021 as Max Verstappen snatched the crown from him in controversial circumstances. And the Dutch king has reigned supreme since, with Mercedes nowhere near Red Bull's level.
Hamilton, 39 next month, is in the twilight of his extraordinary career, though he has signed up for at least two more seasons with his team. But even if Mercedes can provide him with a car capable of challenging for the title, Coulthard is not convinced his fellow Brit still has what it takes to dethrone Verstappen.
"This is not Lewis at his prime," said the Scot. "This is Lewis in a very frustrating two-year state of underperforming. When he gets a winning car again, it'll be really interesting to see if he can rediscover the old Lewis magic."
Hamilton has managed to produce some strong results this season and finished third in the drivers' standings. But those high points were too few and far between and he remains without a race win for two years.
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He ended the campaign particularly poorly, finishing eighth, seventh and ninth in the last three races of the year. That run, which included a Sprint weekend with more rewards on offer, yielded just 14 points for Mercedes in their ultimately successful quest for second in the constructors' championship.
That came after back-to-back second-placed finishes in Austin and Mexico, though he was later disqualified from the first. Like many others, Coulthard's fellow Channel 4 pundit Mark Webber has been left baffled by the inconsistency of the Mercedes cars.
"The car is a mystery isn't it?" the former Red Bull star said. "Like Brazil, nowhere. Mexico, Austin - obviously Lewis got done as the car was a bit low there, technically - but ultimately that race there Hamilton was on fire. This thing is literally on or off, it blowing hot or cold, the drivers up and down.
"They're very little nip and tuck and, when you're nip and tuck, you can actually develop, you can actually start to feed off each other. But when you've got a gulf, it's actually hard technically on a weekend to execute pulling all the corners together. So they will want to put that thing in the bin."
Toto Wolff has already made it clear his team is doing exactly that. "Literally, there's almost every component that's being changed because only by doing that, I think we have a chance," declared the Austrian, before warning: "We could get it wrong also. So, between not gaining what we expect, catching up and making a big step and competing in the front, everything is possible."