Lewis Hamilton has said that he wanted to prove he is still more than a match for Formula One’s upcoming young talent during his victory at the Japanese Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver saw off Red Bull’s 20-year-old Max Verstappen at Suzuka and is within touching distance of a fourth world championship while his title rival, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, was forced to retire from the race. The British driver’s team executive director, Toto Wolff, also observed how strong he believes the 32-year-old has become this season during a closely fought title battle.
Hamilton won at Suzuka from pole position and Vettel was forced to retire on lap four after a spark-plug failure. A charging Verstappen chased Hamilton to the line. The Dutch driver had taken his second career victory at the previous round in Malaysia, relegating the championship leader to second, and was constantly in Hamilton’s mirrors while looking to repeat the feat in Japan. After a late virtual safety car period, when Hamilton’s tyres took time to come up to temperature, Verstappen closed to within a second of the race leader and was eager to attack over the final laps.
“We didn’t have a massive fight out on track but we all know how quick Max is,” Hamilton said. “I thought: ‘You won the last race, I’m not letting you have this one.’ I was driving down the back straight at one point and I’m thinking: ‘Jeez, the guy behind me is so much younger than me, I’ve got to make sure I kind of man up and show my age and make sure that I stay ahead. Show that I’m actually still young at heart.’”
Hamilton is in his 11th season in F1 and, having been able to hold off Verstappen, the win has given him a huge advantage in the world championship. He leads Vettel by 59 points, with four races remaining and 100 points available to score. Should he win at the next round in the US and Vettel finishes below fifth he will take the title. However, in the aftermath of the win in Japan he was able to take pleasure in how competitive Verstappen and the Red Bull had proved.
“I’m enjoying being in an era with such great young talent coming through,” he said. “He’ll be here far beyond after I stop but until then I will try to not give him too many poles or too many wins.”
After a fractious season in 2016 during which he ultimately lost to his then team-mate Nico Rosberg, Hamilton has appeared to be far more comfortable this year. His eight wins have been achieved despite the Mercedes not having a clear advantage over Ferrari and struggling with what has been a difficult car to manage under different conditions and at different tracks.
Wolff believes Hamilton, who won one world championship with McLaren in 2008 and has two with Mercedes, has stepped up his game this season. “My experience with sportsmen at that level is that the way they develop is almost inspiring,” he said in Suzuka. “They look at their weaknesses and try to improve them. Over the winter Lewis analysed what went wrong and came back a completely different person and since then we have not had a moment where we saw any weakness.”
Wolff had expressed sympathy for Ferrari immediately after the race in Japan but remained blunt about his team’s approach to the climax of the season. “In this sport you take no prisoners,” he said. “It is about having the fastest car, the best driver and the most solid performance. We have been there, we have had difficult moments for each of our drivers in the past. When you are pushing the boundaries you will eventually reach its limits.”
He said the team would not be taking anything for granted at the final races of the season until both championships were in their hands, with the next meeting at the Circuit of the Americas in two weeks. “I wouldn’t want to change the way we approach things,” he said. “Looking at each race at a time, trying to maximise the performance of each race weekend, that appears to have been the right approach and we want to maintain that.
“You need to have a humble attitude towards motor racing, it is what makes it exciting. There is always a degree of the unexpected that can happen and in so far as there are 100 points left to score, we won’t take the good from the battle until it is done.”