Lewis Hamilton hopes that both the McLaren F1 Team and BWT Alpine F1 Team can join the battle at the front of the field during the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season.
The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver expects his team to be involved at the front as well as Scuderia Ferrari and last year’s dominant Constructors’ Champions Oracle Red Bull Racing, but he would also like to see the teams that finished fourth and fifth to make the step up.
Coming off the back of his worst season in Formula 1 that saw him fail to win a race for the first time in his career, Hamilton believes it would be good for the sport if there were more teams in with a chance of winning races, as only three teams did take victories during the 2022 season.
And it is the teams based at Woking and Enstone that the seven-time World Champion sees most likely at making the jump forward in performance.
“I’d like to think that we’re going to be the ones that are competing with them and being able to beat them [Red Bull] again, I do believe that for sure,” said Hamilton to Formula1.com.
“But I really hope that Ferrari are strong in the following years. They’ve definitely had a difficult year [in 2022] but there’s been some strong signs, obviously, that you’ve seen this year, which has been nice to see. And it’s been nice to see Ferrari doing well again.
“So, I hope that it’s more than a two-way battle next year. I hope there’s at least three of us. If not, surprisingly, maybe more. Like, why can’t McLaren be there? We’ll see. Or even Alpine has been doing amazing. So, we’ll see.”
