Hamilton gets title boost as Red Bull chief admits his rivals have 'weaknesses'
Helmut Marko thinks the path is clear for Lewis Hamilton to be the chief rival to Max Verstappen this year - if anyone can get close to the Red Bull star.
Nobody could manage it last term. Team-mate Sergio Perez won two of the first four races but after that, other than a rare off-weekend for the Red Bull team in Singapore, Verstappen was untouchable and romped to his third consecutive drivers' title.
It remains to be seen whether the performance gap will close in the upcoming campaign. With no knowledge yet of how performant the new cars built by each team are, all there is to go on is the drivers who are likely to be involved in the hunt for silverware.
In addition to Hamilton, the likes of Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris will be considered by many to be in that category. Ferrari star Leclerc was the chief threat to Verstappen in 2022 before his challenge faded in the middle of the season, while last year he took several pole positions but failed to convert any of them into a race win.
Norris, meanwhile, has been considered for many years now to be a future title contender. But, with more than 100 F1 races now under his belt, the Briton has still yet to take victory in one - though McLaren do now look better equipped than ever to provide him with a car in which he can do so.
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Red Bull adviser Marko has plenty of respect for both of them, though he believes they both have a similar weakness. In any case, he is adamant that no-one on the grid will be able to stop Verstappen from making it four in a row this year.
"Leclerc and Norris are certainly exceptional talents, but both have shown weaknesses in consistency in the past," the 80-year-old told F1 Insider. "Max is not yet at his limit. He will get even better. It is our job to provide him with a car that is as good as the one in 2023. Then he will be the benchmark again."
Meanwhile, speaking to the same publication, former F1 team owner Eddie Jordan heaped praise upon Verstappen as well as the two singled out by Marko. At the same time, he questioned whether F1 veterans Hamilton and Fernando Alonso still have what it takes to battle against the defending champion.
He said: "It was already clear to Michael [Schumacher] after the first test drives at Silverstone - he would be Ayrton Senna's challenger. He was so fast straight away that we thought the stopwatch was crazy... For me, Max Verstappen is the mixture of Senna and Schumacher.
"If I had a top team now and didn't get Max, there would only be one driver pairing that would be able to take on the fight with Verstappen: Charles Leclerc and, as a team-mate, Lando Norris. I simply no longer trust Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, well-deserved champions, to be able to keep up with Verstappen because of their advanced age."
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