Lewis Hamilton has tipped Fernando Alonso to join the fight for the world championship in 2018. This year, Briton Hamilton emerged victorious from his battle with Ferrari, but he thinks there will be others in the fight in 2018.
"I will prepare more than ever to try to take home my fifth championship next year," Mercedes' Hamilton is quoted by Italy's La Repubblica. "We will be in a four-way fight: us, Red Bull, Ferrari as always and perhaps McLaren. We cannot afford to stay calm, we need to keep working and improving."
After three years with underpowered and unreliable Honda power, Alonso will have customer Renault engines aboard his McLaren next year. "There will also be McLaren with the Renault engines," Hamilton acknowledged.
Referring to his old McLaren teammate Alonso, Hamilton said: "This year we had a nice duel and I'd like more of them. Fernando deserves to fight at the front so I hope that another world champion like him can join the battle." (GMM)
Will McLaren be able to build a better chassis than Red Bull and the works Renault team with an engine they have little familiarity, a brand new model of gearbox and a cooling system they have no input on? I dont really think thats likely.
Will McLaren be able to build a better chassis than Red Bull and the works Renault team with an engine they have little familiarity, a brand new model of gearbox and a cooling system they have no input on? I dont really think thats likely.
Me neither. Renault has made massive gains with their car, and Red Bull has much more experience with this engine.. I expect McLaren to be near them, but unless McLaren has found a great advantage in some grey area like the F-duct, they will not be in front.. I hope they’ll be, but I won’t bet on it.
They might benefit from being able to veto the sharkfin, since maybe they planned to have next year's car without it to begin with, but I dont think it'll help them much. And the new gearbox will take more time and resources from other areas of development. I certainly dont think they will challenge Mercedes.
Please let it be so. I still think Alonso is as good as ever and that all he needs is a half-decent car. This year's battle was underwhelming in many ways. Not the least because Vettel threw it out with stupidity, but also because reliability and penalties deprived us of many potentially interesting battles.
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Will McLaren be able to build a better chassis than Red Bull and the works Renault team with an engine they have little familiarity, a brand new model of gearbox and a cooling system they have no input on? I dont really think thats likely.