Max Verstappen has been warned that Lewis Hamilton will want to "destroy" him during the upcoming Formula 1 season, after losing out on the 2021 World Championship in controversial circumstances. Hamilton was on course for what would have been a record-breaking eighth crown in Abu Dhabi until a late-race Safety Car - and decisions made by Race Director Michael Masi - turned the encounter on its head. Recently emerging from his winter silence, and looking ahead to a fresh start in 2022, Hamilton boldly commented: "If you think what you saw at the end of the last year was my best, wait until you see this year."
Hamilton "fired up" for success in 2022
With those words in mind, ex-F1 driver Anthony Davidson - who combines his time as a Sky Sports F1pundit with a simulator role for Mercedes - reckons Hamilton will be firing on all cylinders for the sport's new era. "When Lewis Hamilton comes out with a sentence like that, you have totake notice," Davidson told the broadcaster in the build up to the new season, which marks the arrival of overhauled regulations . "He sure is fired up to win this thing once and for all and I thinkhe'll be hard to beat. He's certainly coming into this season with a verybullish mentality."
Hamilton will want to "destroy" Verstappen
After a close battle between the pair in 2021, which resulted in several collisions, Davidson suggested that Hamilton won't "even want to see Max on track" this time out. "There will be nothing more [that] Lewis wants from this season than to destroy Max," continued Davidson. "Let's not beat around a bush, he feels absolutely robbed as to what happened last year in Abu Dhabi, he wants to come out with a dominant car and he doesn't even want to see Max on track, I'm sure. "He just wants to show him a clean pair of heels, disappear off into the distance and win his eighth World Championship."
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