Hamilton vs Verstappen: who's the driver of the season so far? – MPH

Who has been the driver of the half-season to date? A case could be made for Lando Norris but perhaps we could leave that assessment for another time. Let’s confine it instead to the two title contenders and refine the question a little. Who between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen has actually delivered the stronger performance? It’s a highly-loaded question given the blind fanaticism among the some of the fan bases of each driver and given the current animosity between the Mercedes and Red Bull camps. But let’s do it anyway.

Let’s look at all 11 races, see the patterns and the highlights, the significant moments, the strengths and weaknesses of their cars. Both have been delivering an extraordinary level of performance, as would be expected of drivers of their calibre, but it’s the first time Verstappen has had a car good enough that he needs to factor-in a title possibility. Hamilton, with seven titles behind him, is well seasoned in racing with the bigger picture in mind.

“Hamilton admitted he’s never quite sure how to handle Verstappen up close”

So do we view the macho territorial claims – Verstappen down to Turn One at Imola and Barcelona, both Verstappen and Hamilton at Copse corner, Silverstone – as part of that? Verstappen has long taken the initiative against Hamilton in any 50/50 situations and Hamilton as long ago as 2017 admitted he’s never quite sure how to handle Verstappen up close, as he’s never sure what he might do and it’s usually better just to give him room. But that was when Hamilton was trying to ensure he won the titles his car was capable of and Verstappen had nothing to lose, so would know Hamilton would likely back out first. The game has changed now they are in comparable cars, and Copse corner Silverstone was the first time Hamilton seriously challenged Verstappen’s assumption of dominance in these situations. It’s a very delicate dance and how they treat each other in any 50/50 situations going forward is going to be fascinating.

Getting down to the nitty-gritty of their performances, Hamilton began the season in Bahrain with as beautifully-judged a victory as he’s ever crafted, given he was in the slower car on the day. His pitwall bought him track position with a bold early stop on the tyre-eating track, but he’d done well just to keep Verstappen within undercut range, although the Red Bull was not as much faster as it had been in qualifying because of a differential problem. That first stint was the aggressive part of Hamilton’s task. The defensive part came in the last 15 laps as Verstappen on way fresher tyres closed him down fast. The key for both was how much to take from the tyres in this chase phase. Verstappen thought he saw an opportunity as he caught the Merc, but it was just too marginal a move and used up the last of the Red Bull’s tyres, letting Hamilton off the hook.