Lewis Hamilton explains why ‘Mario Kart’ F1 racing is finally working

Max Verstappen may have likened modern F1 to “Mario Kart”, but Lewis Hamilton believes that’s exactly why the racing is finally improving.

After years of Formula 1 not delivering “the best form of racing”, as the drivers could not follow the car ahead, Hamilton says it is finally there.

Lewis Hamilton backs ‘Mario Kart’ F1 racing shift

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Two races into the new battery-dominated Formula 1 era, Mercedes and Ferrari have emerged as the leading teams.

While Mercedes has the engine advantage, the Brackley squad is destroying its rivals in qualifying while also outpacing them in the grand prix, Ferrari is better off the line.

It’s led to thrilling battles in both grands prix and the Shanghai Sprint in the early laps as Ferrari disrupted the Mercedes 1-2 and then made George Russell and Kimi Antonelli work for their respective wins.

The battles, though, have been largely battery-dependent, creating a back-and-forth with one car getting ahead of the other based on their battery power at that specific moment.

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Some drivers, such as Max Verstappen, hate it and have branded it “Mario Kart”. But if you ask Hamilton, “kart” is just what Formula 1 needs.

“I think if you go back to karting, it’s the same thing,” said the Ferrari driver. “People going back and forth, back and forth, you can never break away. No one has ever referred to go-karting as yo-yo racing. It’s the best form of racing.

“And Formula 1 has not been the best form of racing in a long time. You just couldn’t follow you.

“Out of all the cars that I’ve driven in 20 years, this is the only car that you can actually follow through high speed and not completely lose everything that you have. You can stay behind it.

“We had the DRS before, which I think was a bit of a band-aid for that issue. Okay, now we have the power difference, but it’s so small the power difference.

“But when you get ahead, the cars behind, they can keep up with you.

“I personally find it much more fun, because that’s the most overtaking and best battle I’ve had since Bahrain years and years ago with Nico.

“But that’s how racing should be. It should be back and forth, back and forth. It should not be like one move is done and that’s it.

“So I personally like that sort of racing. We just need all the rest of the teams to kind of close up so we have more of those battles.”

To date, P1 has belonged to Mercedes in both qualifying and the races.

There is the possibility that Ferrari could upset the championship leader’s winning streak at Suzuka as there are only two Straight Mode sections this weekend – compared to four in Australia. That means Mercedes’ engine advantage will be somewhat negated.

Hamilton, though, believes that won’t make much of a difference as Mercedes’ W17 is a match for Ferrari’s SF-26 in the corners.

“We only have two SM sections here,” he explained. “So I’m not sure whether that’s maybe a positive for us, because every time Mercedes open up their SM, they pull away. So maybe there’s less chance for them to do that here. Maybe, I don’t know.

“Maybe we can keep up with them more through the high-speed sections, potentially.

“I think there will be very similar speeds through corners. So I’ll be guessing, if you look at the other races, they’ve been just as quick through the corners. But yeah it’s mostly when they open up.

“So it will be interesting to see what deployment schedule they have compared to us. That’s always the biggest difference when the weekend starts.”

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