Lewis Hamilton title hope doubt as Red Bull insider sends clear message – F1 news round-up

Oliver Harden 14 Jan 2024 10:00 PM

Lewis Hamilton is leaving Mercedes for Ferrari at the end of 2025.

Sunday’s selection of F1 news will not make for fun reading for seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton.

Not only have his hopes of taking the fight to Red Bull and Max Verstappen in 2024 been dismissed, but Mercedes team-mate George Russell has been tipped as a better bet to win the title this season.

Strap yourself in for a rapid rush through the day’s main headlines…

Lewis Hamilton’s F1 2024 title hopes knocked

Lewis Hamilton has been told to forget about challenging for the F1 2024 title, with a Red Bull insider warning it could be another “dull season” dominated by Max Verstappen.

While Verstappen has won 44 of the last 66 races stretching back to the start of his maiden title-winning campaign in 2021, Hamilton remains without a victory since the penultimate round of that season in Saudi Arabia.

Mercedes are hopeful of challenging for the title in 2024, but the Red Bull man reckons it is impossible to look beyond Verstappen.

But fresh hope for George Russell?

An F1 race winner has backed George Russell to take the fight to Verstappen in the F1 2024 season if Mercedes can produce a competitive car.

Russell enjoyed an impressive debut season with Mercedes in 2022, beating illustrious team-mate Hamilton to claim his first career victory in Brazil, but was restricted to just two podium finishes during a difficult 2023.

But a fellow one-time grand prix winner is tipping Russell to hit back hard and even potentially take the fight to Verstappen in 2024 – on one condition.

David Croft reveals one F1 2024 team already in trouble

Sky F1 commentator David Croft has let slip that one team’s 2024 car has already been described as “slow” by one of their drivers.

The start of a new season is traditionally a time for renewed hope and expectation, but Croft was told before Christmas that one team’s optimism is already draining away.

Let’s just say that, judging by how their 2023 season developed, the identity of this team may not come as a huge surprise…

F1 2024’s troubled team understands Red Bull secrets

Interestingly enough, that same team have claimed they have a good understanding of last year’s title-winning Red Bull RB19.

So who do you believe, dear reader: David Michael Croft or Team A’s technical director?

They can’t both be right, surely…

Sprint qualifying set to return to Friday?

F1 Sprint qualifying could return to Friday as one of two potential plans by F1 to shake up the format for the upcoming season.

Formula 1 made a change in 2023 with the sprint becoming its own standalone event via sprint qualifying on Saturday morning and the sprint race in the afternoon, but that could be reversed in an effort to improve the format for 2024.

PlanetF1.com understands that is one of two proposals tabled with a final decision set to be submitted to the F1 commission this month.