Until the wake of the 2021 season, it was a rarity to see Lewis Hamilton making mistakes on the track. The Briton enjoyed consistency, which was splendid enough to keep his rivals at bay. However, the resurgence of Red Bull and the consequent arrival of Max Verstappen has turned things around for the 7-time world champion.

Hamilton missed out on a potential race win at Imola after running onto the gravel trap. A similar story unfolded at Baku, where the Mercedes driver made a bizarre blunder of switching off his brakes during the restart. This ultimately saw Hamilton drop to P15 despite leading the pack for a split-second going into turn 1.

Considering the change in dynamics, former F1 driver, Gerhard Berger, is quite convinced that Hamilton is prone to making a lot more mistakes this season.

Verstappen can now give it his all: Berger

As reported by Soy Motor, the Austrian reckoned that Verstappen and co can continue pushing to their absolute limits, which could potentially trigger Hamilton into committing more on-track errors.

“Red Bull has been looking for more power for a long time. Honda did a great job this winter and did their homework well. This is a great opportunity to be world champion again,” he said.

“Max Verstappen can now give it his all and, under that pressure, Hamilton will make more mistakes than in the past. Red Bull works perfectly. If you look at its pit stops, it is one record after another.”

Red Bull have embraced a rather strong start to the season, as Mercedes are already hunting for options to stop their rivals’ dominant run. What’s more problematic for Mercedes is Sergio Perez’s form.

The Brackley outfit have always used Red Bull’s lack of a proper second driver to their advantage. But the Christian Horner-led team managed to put an end to that by signing the in-form Mexican, who recently went on to secure his first race win with the team.

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Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton have a package they can fight with: Berger

The 61-year-old is certain that Honda’s engine this season has spiced up the rivalry between two of the top-notch drivers, Hamilton and Verstappen.

“Max and Lewis are exceptional talents and now they have a package they can fight with. Max no longer has a blunt knife. He has a super-fast car and an engine that is not far from that of Mercedes,” he said.

Unlike the past few seasons, predicting this year’s title-winner doesn’t seem very straightforward. The two title contenders are separated by just 4 points at the moment, and with 17 more races left in the bag, anything could happen.

Hence, the numbers very evidently suggest that we could be looking at a nail-biting season ahead. So, how feisty is this championship battle going to turn as F1 marches deeper into the season?

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