Vettel says Mercedes cruising to 2020 title
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| The superior Mercedes is unbeatable. Since F1 is 99% car and 1% driver, the fight for the title, as it has been for the last 6 years, is between the two Mercedes drivers. The rest may as well stay home |
(GMM) After just three races in 2020, Mercedes does not appear to have a viable challenger for the world championship.
When asked if he can imagine Lewis Hamilton failing to equal Michael Schumacher's record tally of seven titles this year, Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel told Bild newspaper: "Yes – if Valtteri (Bottas) wins it."
Even Bottas – Hamilton's teammate – does not deny that.
"It is still very early in the season and it is Formula 1," he said. "You never know what will happen.
"But the way it looks at the moment with our success on two different tracks, I get the impression that the fight is between Lewis and me."
As for the other top teams, Ferrari has been "relegated to the second division of Formula 1" after Hungary, according to Italian sports newspaper Tuttosport.
And Red Bull-Honda is also disappointed to be struggling with issues with its 2020 car.
"Of course we were delighted with Max's great race in Hungary, but we also know that Mercedes is way ahead," team boss Christian Horner said.
| F1 is not a sport, but an exercise in engineering excellence. F1 engineers win titles, not the driver/athlete. Anyone who thinks otherwise is just fooling themselves. At least in IndyCar, with all the cars essentially 'spec' or 'equal', the driver actually makes a difference. |
"It must be due to the aerodynamics as we know that fundamentally we have a good car. It's just not always doing what our simulation tools predict.
"We collected a lot of data in Hungary which will help us, but the distance to Mercedes is striking. How much we can catch up will become clear when we get more out of the RB16," Horner added.
Franz Tost, boss of Red Bull's second team Alpha Tauri, told Servus TV that there is no hiding from Mercedes' dominance.
"It's not so good for Formula 1 that Mercedes dominates like this," said the Austrian.
"I hope Max Verstappen can win a few races but it will be difficult because Mercedes has only become stronger."