Hamilton ‘will’ have an advantage over Max with 2022 cars

Lewis Hamilton “will” have an advantage over Max Verstappen because of the characteristics of the new cars, according to Sergey Sirotkin.

Verstappen pipped Hamilton to last year’s Drivers’ Championship title, the Dutchman securing it with a last-lap-of-the-season pass.

It was a controversial conclusion to what was a thrilling season, Verstappen and Hamilton evenly matched as the duo claimed 14 1-2 results in 22 grands prix.

Verstappen’s win in the championship brought Hamilton’s four-year reign to an end, also blocking the Mercedes driver from bagging what would have been a record-breaking eighth World title.

Hamilton will be back on the grid this season, the Briton telling the world “I’m back” after weeks of silence, with Sirotkin believing the all-new 2022 cars could suit his driving style more than Verstappen’s.

“This year we will of course get completely new cars,” he wrote in his latest FORMULA 1 Magazine column.

“These should be slower in the corners, which means you have to brake longer and more for this. Compared to last year, you spend more time.

“This will mainly be to Hamilton’s advantage, again especially on tracks where it matters such as Barcelona and Budapest.

“Nobody knows exactly how the 2022 cars will fare, of course, but the fact that in theory they will be a little more difficult to drive may be somewhat beneficial to Hamilton as he controls his car’s balance so well.”

This season, Formula 1 is introducing sweeping changes based around a move to ground-effect aerodynamics as the sport’s bosses want to create more overtaking by allowing drivers to follow each other closely for longer.

Speaking about Hamilton’s style, the former Williams driver explained: “When you talk about that control over the