Lewis Hamilton ‘stronger than ever’ and backed for record-breaking Formula 1 world title ahead of Max Verstappen but lacks ruthless streak of Fernando Alonso

Lewis Hamilton’s former teammate Heikki Kovalainen has backed the Brit for a record-breaking eighth Formula 1 world title, saying he has been made ‘stronger than ever’ by last season’s events.

Hamilton missed out on the chance to move ahead of Michael Schumacher’s seven world championships in 2021, beaten by Max Verstappen in extremely controversial circumstances.

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A title bout for the ages was decided on the final lap of the final race of the season minutes after Hamilton was cruising towards the win ahead of Verstappen.

Some late and unprecedented safety car decisions allowed the Dutchman to pass his British rival and claim the championship, and the calls later resulted in race director Michael Masi being removed from his post.

Retirement rumours regarding 37-year-old Hamilton gathered momentum as the defeated champion removed himself from the spotlight, later returning ahead of the new campaign.

But Hamilton’s former teammate, and current driver, Kovalainen, was never in doubt that his old McLaren colleague would return, and was sure he would come back stronger than ever.

“My pick for the title is still Lewis,” Kovalainen told talkSPORT. 

“I already said at the end of last year, what happened in Abu Dhabi, I said to a few friends of mine, Lewis will come back stronger, and he will be more determined than ever to win the championship.

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“He had a long time off during the winter but I believe it took a long time for him to get over what happened in Abu Dhabi. 

“I think he’s found a way out of it and I believe that has made him stronger, a stronger person and a stronger driver and even more determined than before.”

The scenes in the Abu Dhabi finale saw a restructuring of the sport’s governing body, the FIA, who recently released a report into the decider, admitting ‘human error’ but clarifying decisions were made ‘in good faith’.

Kovalainen believes that unlike drivers such as Fernando Alonso, Hamilton is happy to admit when he’s beaten, but this wasn’t one of those occasions.

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“In my opinion he’s not as ruthless as Fernando for example,” he explained. 

“He’s more measured, if he has to lose fair and square I believe he has no issues with that.

“With Fernando I kind of felt he would do anything not to lose, whether it was a nice thing or not, he was even more determined and more ruthless in that sense. 

“Lewis takes things to the edge but he also wants to do things right, I believe he’s not worried about anyone else on the grid. I don't believe he feels like he needs to do dirty tricks, and I think he doesn’t want to do dirty tricks. 

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“He doesn’t want to win by cheating or by doing something silly, he wants to win by doing it the right way and he’s got the speed and amazing capacity to rely on, that’s a pretty big asset to rely on.”

Hamilton did eventually return to the spotlight ahead of the new season when Mercedes launched their W13 challenger for the new era of F1 rules.

The Brackley-based outfit have won eight consecutive constructors’ titles as a team, but have started the new campaign on the back foot, well off the pace of Ferrari and Red Bull.

But Kovalainen is sure if anyone can overcome early season dilemmas, it’s Mercedes.

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“I believe that Mercedes will fix the issues that they have now and Lewis is still my pick for the championship, we’ll see how that works out,” he said.

“I think we are in for a really exciting Formula 1 season, the Ferraris that were expected to join the battle up top already in the last couple of years, they’ve now joined that group. 

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“The question marks over Mercedes is that they need to sort their car out and if they can do it quick enough to challenge for the championship, but it should be a really exciting season coming up.

“If it’s any team it’s the Mercedes team that is capable of sorting out big problems and fixing issues.”