Lewis Hamilton spoke with enthusiasm after last week’s Belgian Grand Prix when he predicted “It’s going to be one hell of a second half of the season” given how competitive it has become at the front of the Formula 1 pack.
Following Hamilton’s victory at Spa-Francorchamps (inherited after George Russell’s disqualification), the 105th of his career, Mercedes racked up its third win in four races.
Moreover, Max Verstappen, the dominant force of Formula 1 in recent times has failed to win a race during that period and has gone without a podium in back-to-back Grands Prix for the first time since 2019.
With the last six pole sitters failing to win ( a first since 2009/10), the top three across the start/finish line at Spa were covered by just 1.173s, the smallest margin since Hamilton backed up Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel at the 2016 Abu Dhabi GP to the tune of 0.843s across the trio.
In 2024, there have been seven different wins, the most since eight triumphed in 2012, Motorsport Week put it to Hamilton to compare the two in the post-race Belgian GP press conference to which the Mercedes driver responded: “I don’t have a good memory, so I don’t remember back then.”
However, Hamilton was able to divulge how competitive Formula 1 is at the present moment after seven winners across four different teams in 2024, saying “It’s really fantastic, I think, for the sport to be having such close teams and drivers.
“And, you know, the pedigree of drivers at the top today are really elite and amazing.”
For Mercedes, scoring a one-two on the road at Belgium and holding onto a victory after the Russell DSQ, is somewhat of a surprise given where the Brackley-based team started this season.
Russell was the leading Mercedes driver at the season-opening Bahrain GP finished 46s off of race winner Verstappen, but the now the team has joined McLaren as a genuine threat to Red Bull.
“Yeah, we didn’t expect to be competing with the McLarens or the Red Bulls at this point in the season, you know, with how we started off,” Hamilton said.
“So for us to now have closed up and be, it’s going to be one hell of a second half of the season for sure,” he predicted.
Based on recent results, Hamilton’s assumption regarding the last 10 rounds of the 2024 F1 campaign will no doubt come to fruition.
