“The trend says that it should prevail”: Hamilton against Pérez and why the Brazilian GP is essential for the F1 runner-up position

Lewis Hamilton It has two local dates: the British GP and the Brazilian GP. Although, at the beginning, the relationship with the Brazilian fans was not one of the best as a result of the 2008 decision, when Lewis Hamilton won the championship at home from Felipe Massa by just one point, the gestures that the Englishman has had to with the green-yellow and his open admiration for Ayrton Senna have managed to make him see him as one of their own. Given the lack of Brazilian drivers racing in the category, Lewis has been adopted and defended with passion. This love, which began with hatred, had its peak of communion when he celebrated his victory in 2021 at the Interlagos circuit, emulating Senna. Thus, on the honor lap, the one that precedes crossing the finish line as the winner, Lewis held the Brazilian flag and waved it around the José Carlos Pace racetrack. As if that were not enough, on the podium he came up wearing the yellow-green cape, a habit and manner that Senna had.

, commented in a documentary about the greatest influences that touched his life. Furthermore, in his early days in karting, Hamilton sported a design similar to that of Senna, yellow and with horizontal green and blue lines. He even kept this design in his first races in Formula One. Lewis Hamilton loves Senna, and Brazil loves Ayrton. The communion, given the orphanhood of local pilots, has been almost natural, and that is why the British pilot this weekend races as a local on the asphalt river of Interlagos.

A week ago, Checo Pérez had the opportunity at home, at the Mexican Grand Prix, to extend his lead on his way to acquiring the runner-up position. The expectation was that Sergio, at the helm of the lethal Red Bull, would manage to become the first local driver to celebrate on the Aztec podium. On the track, the opposite happened: Sergio abandoned in the first lap, and the distance he had against his closest pursuer, Lewis, was reduced to just 20 units. Two dozen points with three games left. Today, Lewis, who starts fifth on the grid, three places ahead of Checo, has to return the Mexican’s place to his adopted circuit. It is certain that given the environment, Hamilton will go out in search of victory on a road course that he has already won three times (2016, 2018 and 2021); However, if the victory does not occur, the objective will remain set on what he has been doing in recent weeks: closing Pérez’s advantage and getting closer to the runner-up position of the current season.

He Red Bull, this season, is a superior car to the Mercedes, but Checo is not mentally better than Lewis. The Mexican is spending his darkest hours in the category: he classifies poorly, he abandons at home, and every day there are more rumors indicating that Red Bull does not want him in its ranks for 2024. As if that were not enough, the teammate of the, Max Verstappen, treats him like a customs inspector. When asked by the media about whether he would help Checo by giving up the position at some point in these next races so that he can score more points, the response has been discouraging: “I think that at the end of the day, it shouldn’t be up to me to get the points. ”, he responded with a clear message. And he added: . Ouch.

If Lewis had not been disqualified in Austin, he would have arrived in Brazil only 2 points behind Checo. The Briton is having a championship definition full of regularity and prominence. Aside from his mistake in Qatar and the disastrous day in Austria, the Mercedes man has finished in the top six in all rounds and has achieved six podiums in the current season. As if that were not enough, Mercedes’ new update package, applied in Austin, has shown good results. In the United States GP, he finished second, 2 seconds behind Max, and in Mexico he repeated the position. The trend says that Lewis should prevail over Pérez, history says that he has what it takes, and the fans push from the stands for another historic day for their adopted son.