Formula 1: Who has the best chance to dethrone Lewis Hamilton in 2019?
By Asher Fair
The target is on Lewis Hamilton’s back once again for the 2019 Formula 1 season. Which driver has the best chance to dethrone him?
Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton is set to enter the 2019 Formula 1 season as one of three drivers who have won five championships in the history of the sport after winning his fifth career championship, his fourth championship in the last five seasons and his second consecutive championship in the 2018 season.
In other words, the target will once again be on the back of the 33-year-old Briton in 2019. With the 2019 season predicted by many people to be one of the most competitive that the sport has seen in several years, which driver has the best chance to dethrone Hamilton?
The easy answer to this question would seem to be Sebastian Vettel, the four-time champion who finished in second place to Hamilton this past season in what was unofficially dubbed the “Fight for Five”. He also finished in second behind Hamilton in the 2017 season when Hamilton tied him on the all-time championships list.
More from Formula One
- Formula 1: Top Red Bull threat identified for 2024
- Formula 1: Why the Max Verstappen retirement obsession?
- Formula 1: Williams ‘mistake’ hints Logan Sargeant’s future
- Formula 1 awaiting key confirmation for 2024 season
- Formula 1: The ‘championship’ Max Verstappen only leads by 3 points
While Vettel is the driver who probably has the best chance to finish in second place in the driver standings behind Hamilton once again assuming Hamilton wins what would be his sixth career championship, his fifth championship in the last six season and his third consecutive championship, he is not the driver who has the best chance to beat him head to head.
Throughout the latter stages of the 2017 season and throughout the majority of the 2018 season, the 31-year-old German made several mistakes that cost him a chance to truly compete with Hamilton for the championship. If he can fix this, he should undoubtedly be able to take the championship battle with Hamilton to the wire.
But therein lies the issue; can we really count on him to suddenly fix this? The guy crashed his Ferrari in a demonstration even leading up to this past year’s Italian Grand Prix, Ferrari’s home race.
The two drivers who have been the trendy picks to beat Hamilton have been Charles Leclerc, who is set to replace 2007 champion Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari after an impressive rookie season driving for Alfa Romeo Sauber, and Max Verstappen, who drives for Aston Martin Red Bull Racing.
Leclerc’s lone season driving for Sauber, which included 10 top 10 finishes, a career-high sixth place finish and 39 points, was by far the best season by a Sauber driver in several seasons. In fact, Sauber’s drivers combined for only three top 10 finishes and seven points in the 2016 and 2017 seasons. Marcus Ericsson, Leclerc’s teammate in 2018, scored nine points on six top 10 finishes this past season.
This alone makes the prospect of the 21-year-old Monegasque driving for Ferrari one that many people like in terms of his chances to dethrone Hamilton, and justifiably so.
Verstappen, meanwhile, has already beaten Hamilton head-to-head on several occasions. He earned his fifth career Formula 1 victory at the age of 21 years and 28 days, an age at which no other driver in the history of the sport had ever even previously recorded one victory. He knows what it takes to beat the five-time champion, and he is made drastic improvements to his driving style after what was a disastrous start to the 2018 season.
What makes the Dutchman a trendy pick to beat Hamilton aside of this fact is the fact that Red Bull Racing are set to switch from Renault engines to Honda engines in the 2019 season, and the Honda engines that they are set to use in the 2019 season are projected to be more reliable and more powerful than their Renault engines were.
So out of Leclerc and Verstappen, who has the upper hand to dethrone Hamilton in 2019?
It’s really a toss-up. But given the fact that Verstappen has nearly three years of experience racing (and beating) Hamilton as a Red Bull Racing driver already under his belt, he probably has the slight edge at this point, especially if Red Bull Racing’s switch from Renault engines to Honda engines results in the additional reliability and power that they expect it to.
Leclerc has the potential to win multiple championships, and he could certainly win his first title in the 2019 season, but Verstappen’s experience driving for a top-tier team should give him the advantage and serve him well in 2019 as he prepares to challenge Hamilton to be the sport’s top driver.
Will Lewis Hamilton win his sixth career Formula 1 championship in the 2019 season and thus become just the second driver to do so, or will another driver dethrone him? If Hamilton is not a six-time champion by the time the end of the 2019 season rolls around, which driver will be the newly crowned champion?