Hill Foresees Tough Battle to Stop Verstappen

Hill views Verstappen as the top contender for this year’s racing championship.

Damon Hill continues to back Max Verstappen as his favourite for this year’s world title. Despite a streak of four races without a victory, the Red Bull driver holds a comfortable lead, and the 1996 world champion does not believe he will be overtaken.

“My gut reaction is that it will be difficult to stop Max Verstappen in a Red Bull,” Hill stated on the F1 Nation podcast. “I know everyone is catching up, but he has shown that he’s ready to fight for every inch on the track to keep those victories and that he can pull results out of the hat.”

“He has been quite critical of the team and wants to see more action because he’s starting to have to work much harder than he has been used to over the last two years.”

“He’ll really have to fight for this championship, so if they can find a bit more pace for him in the car’s development, I’m sure they can, but he will always be pursued until the end.”

Hill admits he did not expect to see Red Bull and Verstappen caught up so quickly and decisively: “I think the trajectory has been quite noticeable in the levelling off of Red Bull and Verstappen, it’s quite dramatic.”

“I don’t know if it’s the cost cap or all the other restrictions on the guys who have won more than anyone else in the past seasons, but it’s partly because of that.”

“But it’s not good enough to just say ‘okay, let everyone catch up.’ If they don’t know what they’re doing, they won’t catch up, so they obviously deserve these positions, they deserve the right to fight for victories.”

“McLaren, in particular, as well as Mercedes, have made a spectacular recovery. Now they have their little tweaks or whatever they’ve done to make the car work, and the only ones who are in a sort of swirl and are going round in circles without making progress, that’s Ferrari.”