“In my personal opinion Valtteri, and all my teammates have been stronger than the teammates Max has had,” said Hamilton.
“Jenson, Fernando, George, Valtteri, Nico… Max has never raced against anyone like that,’ he added. While Verstappen dominates the 2023Formula One season with 339 points to his name ahead of the Italian Grand Prix, his current teammate Sergio Perez is on second in the title race with 201 points.
While talking to Dutch media after the 2023 F1 Italian Grand Prix Qualifying, Verstappen replied to Hamilton’s accusation by calling him ‘jealous’. “Maybe he’s a little jealous of my current success. This kind of statement… he possibly thinks he’s winning something with that, but it makes no difference to me,” said Verstappen.
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“I think Mercedes have a very hard time dealing with losing, after all these years of winning so much.
At some point, you have to be realistic and then you have to be able to appreciate what other teams are doing. We did the same when they were dominant and we also said, ‘We have to work harder because we are not good enough’. You can keep shouting and screaming that what we do is not that special… you just have to deal with yourself,” he added.
Verstappen’s current teammate Checo Perez has won two races in the Red Bull dominant 2023 F1 season so far, while RBR posterboy Verstappen has won the rest 11 Grand Prix races. Moreover, Perez’s recent form has resulted in the Mexican driver dropping points on a couple of occasions despite racing in the same machinery as his teammate. That said, Verstappen’s teammates over his Red Bull career include Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, and Daniel Ricciardo. The Dutch racing driver has also teamed up with Carlos Sainz, Daniil Kvyat and Jean-Eric Vergne at Scuderia Torro Rosso, currently operating under the name of AlphaTauri.
Do you agree that Lewis Hamilton has had ‘stronger’ teammates as compared to Max Verstappen? Let us know in the comments down below.