Dutch GP: Lewis Hamilton praises 'fantastic' Red Bull and Adrian Newey

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has praised the ‘fantastic’ job that Red Bull and Adrian Newey have done with their car this season.

The RB18 has been the pick of the bunch this year on the grid, with Max Verstappen using it to devastating effect so far, building up a lead of nearly 100 points in the Drivers’ standings.

Indeed, with Sergio Perez in second place in the table, it’s clear that the Red Bull has been the car to beat with them combining reliability, in the main, with real speed and grip.

It’s perhaps no surprise that, with the new rules coming in at the start of the year, that Adrian Newey has aced things once again for the team and, that said, Hamilton could not deny that he’d been suitably impressed with their work.

Lewis was actually asked about Max’s performance this year and whilst he gave the Dutchman credit, he felt the team deserved immense praise:

“I’m more impressed with Adrian Newey and his team.

“It is a great team, they’ve generally had really great cars for some time. They used to have a really high ride height and had more drag than before.

“They’ve experienced this year that their engine isn’t slower than others, that it was more they had a lot more drag in the previous years. They’ve done a fantastic job.”

Certainly, the Red Bull car is once again the one to beat after Mercedes dominance for the best part of the last decade and it’s up to the Silver Arrows, and Ferrari, to try and reel them back in.