Former LeMans winner claims Lewis Hamilton loses to Max Verstappen even in a mediocre Red Bull

Lewis Hamilton in a good Ferrari would still lose to Max Verstappen in a mediocre Red Bull; that's the view of former LeMans winner Helmut Marko as he looks ahead to the season. The 2025 F1 season is heading for a unique build-up where there are multiple drivers who could possibly find themselves in contention for the title.

The 2024 F1 season saw Verstappen win his 4th consecutive title, and this title wasn't won just on pace but on relentless consistency. The driver realized very early that he didn't have a car to win many races after McLaren's Miami upgrade and hence focused on bringing points home.

Lewis Hamilton, on the other hand, has changed teams and will be a Ferrari driver in 2025. The Italian team had a very strong car in 2024, and it is expected to be one of the challengers this season alongside McLaren.

Red Bull's Helmut Marko, however, was not too bothered by the challenge, as he felt that none of the drivers in McLaren and Ferrari were as good as Max Verstappen and would lose to him. Terming Charles Leclerc error-prone and questioning Lewis Hamilton's consistency, Marko told Sport Bild:

"The two race teams had the best base for their cars last season and were able to perform well on most circuits. They can build on that. But: none of the drivers stand out for me."

He added:

"Charles Leclerc is good in qualifying but makes a lot of mistakes in the races. And Lewis Hamilton still has the speed, but can he keep that up for a whole season? I have my doubts about that. Even if he has a good Ferrari and we build a mediocre Red Bull for Max, I would put my money on Max."

---

Max Verstappen on hunger to win more titles

Max Verstappen is now a 4-time world champion and already one of the greatest to ever do it. The Dutch driver was, however, questioned by Sportskeeda on whether he had a number in mind that he wanted to achieve in terms of the number of titles, to which he said that he was already very happy and would continue to race until he's happy with the direction of the sport. He said:

“It's just because you don't know where you're going to end up, right? And I'm already very happy with it, what I have achieved, and I just don't want to put a number on it. I’m happy already, so even if nothing happens now, that is fine. Once I stop, I'm happy anyway."

He added:

"You know I've achieved so much. I'm just happy that yeah of course if we could add more, I will add more but it's not something that I'm desperately trying to achieve to try and hang into the sport you know to try and win more.”

If Max Verstappen does end up winning his fifth consecutive title this season, he would become the second driver since Michael Schumacher to do so.