Hamilton warned Verstappen ‘can get better’ as he chases third straight title

LEWIS HAMILTON has been warned that Max Verstappen can get even better than he was during his dominant 2022 World Championship win.

Verstappen cruised to the title with four races to spare after victory in Japan last October.

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And Red Bull chief engineer Paul Monaghan said: “Max is technically extremely gifted.

“He did a lot of work as a youngster, often guided by his father [ex-F1 driver Jos], and you can see the legacy of that.

“He knows what he’s talking about within the car, and he knows what he wants.

“With his engineers, they know how to deliver a car that he finds nicely-balanced, easy to drive.

“Well, not necessarily easy to drive, but driveable. It looks after its tyres well enough that he can manage a situation.

“If you look at his record over the past seasons he’s been with us, it’s stunning.

“He wouldn’t achieve that if he wasn’t an exceptional driver.

“And can he improve? Yes, of course he can. He might not thank me for saying that.

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“I think there are areas he can get a little bit better.

“He’ll dig into himself and think what could he do better for a season, and it’s up to us to give him a car to go and demonstrate those skills.”

Hamilton pushed Verstappen all the way in 2021, controversially losing out on the title after a last minute rule change following the withdrawal of the safety car.

As a result of his failure to follow strict safety car rules, Michael Masi was sacked as F1 race director ahead of the following season.

But that didn’t help Hamilton as the poor performance of his Mercedes saw him finish sixth in the Drivers Championship, failing to win a race for the first time in his career.

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