The battling duo who Lewis Hamilton would ‘snatch lead from’ in spec series Formula 1

Ex-IndyCar and NASCAR racer Danica Patrick believes that if all the Formula 1 cars were equal, the “consistent” Lewis Hamilton would be waiting for victory openings from a battling Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen.

As time has gone on in Formula 1, the influence of the car which a driver is competing in, rather than the outright pace of that competitor, has become arguably the key influencer on the strength of result possible.

Even though the existence of a Drivers’ and Constructors’ title is a huge part of Formula 1’s appeal, it can lead to situations like seen in F1 2023, where Max Verstappen is so in-tune with the dominant RB19 challenger that no other driver can lay a glove on him in racing action.

Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen up front in equal F1

Verstappen has reeled off eight grand prix wins in a row, his overall tally for the season standing at 10 out of 12 contested, but even if Formula 1 was a one-make racing series to take the strength of the cars out of the equation, Patrick still believes Verstappen would be a leading force.

Well accustomed to racing in a spec series from her time competing in IndyCar, Patrick reckons the veteran presence of Alonso would loom large over Verstappen in this F1 alternate universe, with seven-time World Champion Hamilton ready to pounce on any openings.

Asked on theSky F1 podcastwhich F1 driver would be the best if they all had the same car, Patrick replied: “I mean, it’s pretty tough for me to not keep thinking about Fernando Alonso.

“And just his ability to…I mean, he’s 41, he’s like re-emerged as so competitive and just doing that over and over again, like his second coming, I think it’s just so impressive.

“You can’t exclude Max, I think when you apply all the styles that will be a pretty great duo right there, between Max and Alonso, because they’re both pretty aggressive too, so that would be fun to watch.

“I’d be really curious to see where Lewis fell in that too, because obviously he’s had so much success with all of his championships, I think that he might be really, really close right there.

“And especially when you take into a race consideration, the length of it, he’s just so consistent, he doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. And so he’d be snatching the lead when those two are going at it.”

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Asked whether she was surprised that attempts have not been made before to get the best drivers together in equal machinery, Patrick explained why it would be impossible to create a situation where drivers were competing with identical cars and engines.

“They tried to do that back in the day with the IROC [International Race of Champions] series back in the States,” said Patrick.

“And the bottom line is, and anybody in motorsports will really know, there are no two cars, no two engines that are the same.

“这就是小差异,particularly in the engines, like the torque curves, I’m going to my old go-karting days, but you’d see the power torque, and these are essentially the same engine, but they all produce a different result, just based on the harmonics, the bore size.

“There’s just so many different things that contribute to just making these little bit of differences, and so you’re just never going to get two identical cars. It’s just impossible.”

Verstappen’s lead at the top of theDrivers’ Championshipstands at 125 points over Red Bull team-mate and nearest rival Sergio Perez.

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