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16 March, 2021
A strongly felt opinion that frequently appears in the comments section of this website is – ”It isn’t Lewis, it’s Mercedes. Give them the same car and Max will beat him.”
As an avid Lewis Hamilton fan, opinion is not enough for GP247 reader Nigel Marson who went on a quest to search for available facts and stats to come to his conclusion. Here goes:
To try and avoid any bias in my approach, I kept this thought in mind – if it was my $30-million, who would I hire for 2022?
To take the recent Formula 1 dominance by Mercedes out of the picture, I compared Lewis’s debut stint at McLaren with Max Verstappen’s now five-year stint at Redbull. As there is little value in comparing the 2014 Toro Rosso with the 2007 McLaren, I thus excluded both drivers’ rookie year.
This will be the first time a McLaren F1 car has been powered by Mercedes since 2012.
Financially, 2020 was a difficult year for McLaren, but the automaker still had a lot to celebrate. The new McLaren 765LT, a more hardcore, track-focused version of the 720S, was one of the most exciting model launches of the year and the company s Formula One team finished third place in the World Constructors Championship, beating Ferrari. This was the team s best result since 2012. Looking ahead, 2021 marks the start of a new era for the McLaren F1 team.
Renault s Daniel Riccardo will replace Carlos Sainz, who will join Ferrari. And while the team s 2020 MCL35 car will carry over to 2021 to cut costs and offset the financial setbacks caused by the pandemic, it will be the first McLaren F1 car to be powered by a Mercedes engine since the MP4-29 in 2012. Renault has supplied engines for McLaren since 2018.