Nigel Mansell has backed a \u201creinvigorated\u201d Lewis Hamilton to win a record-breaking eighth world title before he retires from Formula 1.<\/p>\n
Seven-time world champion Hamilton<\/a> has been unable to challenge for what would be a historic eighth drivers\u2019 crown since controversially losing out on the 2021 world title to Max Verstappen<\/a>.<\/p>\n 1992 world champion Mansell believes Hamilton still has what it takes to end his career on the ultimate high note.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to be romantic, I\u2019d like Lewis to do it,\u201d Mansell told Sky Sports News.<\/p>\n \u201cLando [Norris has] got so many years ahead of him, he can do it again. But yeah, I mean, come on Lewis! It\u2019s special. You\u2019ve done so many things, mate. Let\u2019s just finish it off.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n The 41-year-old Briton has enjoyed a strong start to his second season with Ferrari <\/a>and scored his first grand prix podium for the Scuderia by finishing third at the Chinese Grand Prix.<\/p>\n Hamilton\u2019s early performances this year, including being much closer to team-mate Charles Leclerc<\/a> in both qualifying and on race day, have been a marked improvement on a miserable debut campaign with Ferrari in 2025.<\/p>\n And Mansell has tipped Hamilton to claim a record 10th British Grand Prix victory at Silverstone in July.<\/p>\n \u201cOdds on. Lewis is fired up again and I\u2019m a huge fan of Lewis. Lewis has had a brilliant career and it’s fantastic what he’s doing,\u201d Mansell added.<\/p>\n “He’s now reinvigorated. Ferrari has done a fabulous job over the winter. They’re there or thereabouts. Obviously Mercedes are the forerunners and McLaren is going to be there too.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n \u201cI think when then they tweak the regulations and by the time we get to Silverstone, it\u2019ll be very close. I\u2019m hoping for an epic race and there\u2019s six or seven drivers that can win, which is lovely.\u201d<\/p>\n Mansell also weighed in on the start by fellow Briton George Russell<\/a>, who entered the season as the world championship favourite.<\/p>\n After winning the season opener in Australia, back-to-back wins for Mercedes<\/a> team-mate Kimi Antonelli <\/a>in China and Japan have seen the Italian teenager take a surprise lead in the world championship.<\/p>\n Antonelli sits nine points clear of Russell at the top of the drivers\u2019 standings after the opening three rounds of the season.<\/p>\n “George is a great driver and sometimes it’s how the chips fall. Sometimes you have a bit of luck, and sometimes you don’t. It’s a long season but you’ve got to lead by incredible focus,\u201d Mansell said.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n “I’ll never forget [my team-mate] Riccardo Patrese in 1992 thought I had a special car. We swapped qualifying cars at Sao Paulo early in the season and I got Sir Frank [Williams] and Patrick ]Head] to agree with that because I was two seconds lap quicker than him. Long story short, the first and second lap, I went out in his car, I was 1.5 seconds quicker, straight away in his car.<\/p>\n “The point is, you have to stamp the authority. Kimi has done a great job. He’s young. Everyone’s pulling for him, so it’s going to be exciting to watch.”<\/p>\n Subscribe to our F1 Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nigel Mansell has backed a \u201creinvigorated\u201d Lewis Hamilton to win a record-breaking eighth world title before he retires…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,826,813,816,823,85],"class_list":["post-608730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}