Hamilton issues ‘cut-throat’ advice to McLaren pair with F1 title on line

Lewis Hamilton has warned McLaren pair Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris they risk losing the Formula 1 title to Max Verstappen unless they are more “cut-throat” about how they race the resurgent champion.

The McLaren teammates are separated by 14 points after 19 of 24 rounds, with Red Bull’s Verstappen 40 adrift of leader Piastri but catching up fast after three wins in the last four races.

“The pressure is high,” Ferrari driver Hamilton, who with Mercedes battled Verstappen down to the wire for the 2021 title won by the Dutch driver, told Sky Sports television ahead of this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix.

“It’s definitely a time where you really have to put your blinkers up, you have to block absolutely everything from the outside, all this because there’s so much coming in, positive and negative.

“Also you really have to be cut-throat. That’s what Max is, he’s going to take this from them if they don’t do the same,” added the Briton, who took the first of his seven titles with McLaren in 2008.

“They’ve got to be pushing and you have got to dig deep to, firstly, be able to hold off someone like Max and in the car that he’s in at the moment.

“But, also, for either of them to come out ahead you know consistency is key and you’ve seen that from Max in the last few races.”

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Verstappen has won five races to Piastri’s seven, with Norris also on five, so far this season.

The four-times world champion had a dip in form mid-season and was 104 points behind Piastri after his home Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August.

He has taken 119 points out of a possible 133 in the last five rounds, including a maximum score in Austin last weekend when he won both the Saturday sprint and main grand prix from pole position.

Hamilton, 40, has been little more than a bystander to the title battle this season, with Ferrari yet to win a race in 2025. The Briton has yet to stand on the podium with the team he joined in January.

Reuters