Hakkinen and Coulthard judge Mercedes

Last week in Jerez, Lewis Hamilton’s debut as a Mercedes driver was one of the main focal points. After six seasons with McLaren, the 2008 world champion is taking on a new challenge with the German manufacturer, which has not managed to progress in the hierarchy since 2010. What about 2013? Mika Hakkinen, former McLaren F1 and Mercedes DTM driver, has his own opinion on the matter. “To be honest, the first tests of the season are always a bit of a gamble. You don’t have a 100% clear picture of the cars’ performance, so it’s a bit early to draw conclusions. I feel that McLaren is at its best this year. As we saw in Jerez, the Mercedes wasn’t as fast as I expected, so I don’t see any competition between them this year,” explained the double world champion on BBC Radio 5 Live.

A pessimism about the star-branded team not shared by his former teammate at McLaren, David Coulthard. Asked by the podcast of the Australian Grand Prix, the Scottish driver believes that Mercedes has a very good engine and there are many skilled people at the factory, so if they have a good aero package, there is no reason why Lewis can’t win multiple races and the championship.

The consultant for British television acknowledges, however, that Mercedes has had difficult seasons so far: Mercedes has had a few unsuccessful years, but they have had the time to see what other teams were doing and go in the right direction.

Beyond the intrinsic performances of the F1W04, the duel between Hamilton and Rosberg is also anticipated. While the young German driver won his first Grand Prix in 2012 and more than held his own against Michael Schumacher, Coulthard believes it will be a completely different story against Lewis Hamilton. « Nico won in China last year, but if you look at Lewis’s performances in the junior formulas compared to Nico, then everything seems to show that he [Lewis] has that little extra spark. They have had parallel careers since karting, but Lewis has always been the one who shined. If Nico can win a Grand Prix, there is no reason Lewis can’t win one, or even several, » concludes the Scot.

If Hamilton will undoubtedly hope that Coulthard’s predictions prove correct, he does not, however, share the same opinion about his new teammate: “Nico is a very good driver, I can assure you. He is underestimated,” explains the Briton in the columns of the newspaper L’Équipe. “If you want to be the best, you must be pushed to your limits, and Nico is a driver capable of doing that.”