Hamilton makes surprise Mercedes snub as F1 team reveal

Red Bull simulator driver Jake Dennis has told Lewis Hamilton to forget about renewing his Formula 1 title rivalry with Max Verstappen this year.

The Formula E champion has helped to develop Verstappen’s machine for the new season and doesn’t think Hamilton should get his hopes up for a title tilt in 2024.

Asked by Mirror Sport what F1 fans can expect from the RB20 having driven the developing car on the simulator, he said: “We’ve got an extremely fast race car again at the Red Bull team.

“I would expect us to become champions again, unless someone like Ferrari or Mercedes somehow manages to find about a second [per lap] overnight. I think it’s going to be quite a dull season in Formula 1 with Max probably dominating.”

Red Bull won all but one of the 22 races held last year as their RB19 machine blew away the competition. Verstappen was himself responsible for 19 of those victories as he smashed a swathe of F1 records.

Their dominance allowed them to focus on developing the RB20 months before any of their rivals could begin to think about their 2024 cars. “I’d be lying if I said we didn’t switch our attention to the 2024 car quite quickly,” said Dennis. “We didn’t do any development on the 2023 car after Singapore.”

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That race took place in September – there were seven more after that for which Red Bull didn’t even bother to work on their car. And the truth is they had already shifted some development resource to the RB20 at least a month before that.

It is an ominous situation for Red Bull’s rivals who face another season of being unable to take the fight to the defending champions. Dennis, 28, has been a development driver for the team since 2018 and so would love to see his prediction come true.

And he has another reason to hope for a boring F1 season, as he works to defend his Formula E title this year. He said: “It’s so dominant from Max right now, it really brings new viewers to Formula E. It brings our championship alive because we just don’t have that – we have a championship which is extremely difficult and close.

“We have 20 cars within two or three seconds on certain tracks, so it’s a lot more exciting and a lot more enjoyable for the fans, I would say. We just need to branch out there to a bigger audience for Formula E and get plenty of exposure, which is what is needed for the championship to take it to the next level.”