Lewis Hamilton feels it is too early to judge if there will be an era of Max Verstappen's dominance in F1. He believes that Ferrari and Mercedes could develop better cars to stop the Dutchman steamrolling in the sport.
Asked if this was the beginning of Max Verstappen's dominant era in the sport, the Briton said:
"It is too early to say. If we get into next year and they're dominating again, then yes, but the Ferraris have been quicker than them throughout qualifying. I think they've every single lap probably had better performance on the majority of a lot of the season. Now, all they need to do is pick up their race pace, and they'll be right with them. I think we've got a much, much bigger step and steeper hill to climb, but hopefully not impossible."
Skeptical about Verstappen's dominance, Lewis Hamilton felt it was too early to tell if this marks the beginning of a new era. The Briton believes if Red Bull are quick next year, then it could be another dominant year for the Dutchman.
The Mercedes champion, however, felt that Ferrari were quicker than Red Bull in their qualifying pace and needed to improve their race pace to stop the Dutch champion's victorious run. As for his own team’s performance, the British driver hoped his team could produce a car competitive enough for him to be in the title fight but he feels they have more progress to make on the development side compared to Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton is proud of his team’s efforts at 2022 F1 US GP
Lewis Hamilton feels his team made an exceptional effort to aid him with a strategy to clinch a potential victory at the 2022 F1 US GP. Despite leading for a significant portion of the race, the Briton succumbed to a raging Max Verstappen and settled for a second-place finish. The Mercedes driver, however, was happy with his team's efforts and proud of the teamwork throughout the race.
Describing the feeling after the race, Lewis Hamilton said:
"It felt amazing. It felt amazing to even just be in shooting distance of Max for some points of the race. We really didn't know what our pace was going to be like today. I think in the first stint he was controlling the pace and it was very difficult to hold on to him. But in that second phase of the race, where after the safety car I was able to keep up with him and we did such a great job with strategy today. We were aggressive. I really am proud of the team. I think everyone worked so hard to bring upgrades here this weekend. And yeah, for a second I thought maybe we might just be able to hold on to it but I think that extra Medium tyre they had was just a little bit too strong compared to us."
Following Verstappen’s abysmal 11-second pitstop, the Briton led the race by a small margin until the former surged through the field with his fresh medium tires, which were much better compared to the hard tires on the Mercedes. The newly-crowned double champion was not only able to pass Lewis Hamilton but also beat him by five seconds despite dropping down the grid earlier in the race.
