Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton might have one of the best cars on the grid, but Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo believes the Briton had the edge over Sebastian Vettel in 2017 because he had maintained a ‘cooler head’ than his rivals in the difficult situation.
Despite Vettel leading the title chase for the first half of the Formula One championship, it was Hamilton who eventually took his fourth drivers’ championship title.
Hamilton won with a margin of 46 points over Vettel after the Ferrari driver’s campaign imploded with crashes and reliability issues and resulted in a series of poor results in Singapore, Malaysia and Japan.
Reflecting on the same, Ricciardo insisted that Hamilton maintained a better level of consistency and composure than Vettel this year.
“Lewis’s season – I respect that. He had a great car, but I think Seb’s car was also as good and Lewis just maintained a cooler head, a better level of consistency and composure,” Sport24 quoted Ricciardo as saying.
“You have to respect that. He was always very fast and I think he drove a very good season,” the Red Bull driver added.
Hamilton became a four-time world champion following a ninth-place finish at the Mexican Grand Prix, the race which was eventually won by the Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
The Mercedes driver, however, failed to continue the momentum after clinching the title and finished at the fourth and second spot respectively in the final two races of his spectacular 2017 season.
