When Lewis Hamilton called out media hypocrisy for applauding Max Verstappen's dominance over his teammate 

Seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton called out the media back in 2023 for showering praise on Max Verstappen for his dominance over his Red Bull teammate. In line with this, Hamilton asserted that he's had tougher teammates in his F1 career than Verstappen.

Max Verstappen won an incredible 19 Grand Prix out of the available 22 in the 2023 season. He completely dominated his then-Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez as the latter was only able to secure two victories.

With the way Verstappen was dominating his teammate in the campaign, Lewis Hamilton (then driving for Mercedes), ahead of the Italian Grand Prix race weekend, pointed out that the former was being talked up way more by the media compared to when he himself was dominating his teammates.

Up until that point, Hamilton had top teammates like Fernando Alonso (McLaren), Jenson Button (McLaren), Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes), and George Russell (Mercedes). In line with this and the way the media was hyping up Max Verstappen in 2023, the Brit, back then, added the following via Sky Italia:

"It’s actually interesting because I was running this morning and I was thinking about this. The narrative, that goes through the media… you know when I qualified half a second, six tenths ahead of Valtteri, they didn’t say the same thing as they say today when Max qualifies six tenths ahead of Perez - it’s blown up much more. In my personal opinion, Valtteri [Bottas], and all of my teammates, have been stronger than the teammates that Max has had."

"Jenson [Button], Fernando, George [Russell], Valtteri, Nico [Rosberg]. I’ve had so many. These guys have all been very, very strong, very consistent and Max has not raced against anyone like that."

Max Verstappen has so far in his Red Bull racing career had teammates like Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Sergio Perez, Liam Lawson, and the current Yuki Tsunoda.

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Lewis Hamilton has been driving for Ferrari since 2025

Lewis Hamilton - Source: Getty

In 2024, Lewis Hamilton was outperformed by George Russell at Mercedes, and ahead of the year's campaign, it was announced that he would drive for Ferrari. Since joining the team in 2025, things have not panned out well for him.

Hamilton has struggled to get performance out of the SF-25 and is quite a way behind in comparison to his teammate, Charles Leclerc. The latter has so far secured five podiums in the first 14 events, whereas Hamilton is yet to secure even a single one in a full-fledged Grand Prix.

The 2025 F1 season will return with its second leg from August 29 onwards with the Dutch Grand Prix. Taking into consideration that there are only 10 events remaining on the race calendar, it will be interesting to see how the Brit will perform.