Dutch pundit: 'Hamilton is the only one who can come close to Verstappen'

Christijan Albers was himself a driver and team boss in Formula 1. So the Dutchman can judge like no other how good (or not) F1 drivers are. Albers saw an outstanding Max Verstappen dominate the season in 2023, and nobody could do anything about it. Not even Lewis Hamilton, the only driver on the current grid who, according to Albers, could come close to Verstappen.

In a column in De Telegraaf, Albers writes that he hopes Mercedes will come up with a better car in 2024. With Hamilton's qualities in mind, it could then be an interesting and exciting battle with Verstappen. "Then I am mainly talking about the quality of being able to perform consistently and be very stable in lap times during a race. Hamilton, like Verstappen, is someone who can manage his tyres wonderfully. Assessing certain situations, feeling the rubber; in that respect, they are alone at the top," Albers believes.

Albers saw a frustrated Hamilton

The former driver - currently a pundit at streaming service Viaplay - saw a frustrated Hamilton on and off the track in the closing stages of the season. Albers can well imagine that after two seasons without a win. "That's going to gnaw at you. He wants more and more but struggles against the fact that that Mercedes doesn't go any faster. Then at the end of the year you are broken and tired. That boost of a moment of furore you need then, he hasn't had it for a while."

Albers wonders aloud whether Mercedes - like every other team on the grid, for that matter - is going to be able to challenge Red Bull in 2024. The ex-driver even doubts whether Mercedes know how to build a very good car at all. Albers thinks that in the German team's dominant years, it was, above all, the rock-solid engine that gave Mercedes success. "And that supremacy has now disappeared," Albers believes.