Here, Mark Webber looks at three drivers who could stop Lewis Hamilton defending his world title in 2020.
I remember I had a training camp at my house near Melbourne a few years ago. I said to Max, ‘I’ll pick you up from your hotel at 8am’. As a test, I got there five minutes early and he was there already. I like that quality. The guy’s done a lot of learning in public, as Lewis Hamilton did, but he’s done some extraordinary things to put himself in the conversation with Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and Ayrton Senna. He’s had a few meltdowns but has amazing belief and composure. It’s tough to split him and Lewis on who’s the fastest.
I hope that this season he can do his best to separate his private and professional life. I’ve not got children of my own, but Seb’s got three kids and I’d imagine that’s hard to take emotionally into, say, Eau Rouge at pace in the rain. Max Verstappen, for example, won’t be thinking about three kids, while Seb can’t pretend it’s not there. I think that’s a big challenge but, on his day, he’s a magician. He was a total master on the narrow Pirelli tyres with the blown diffuser, although he’s not been as good with the bigger cars.
The first thing you notice about Charles is that he’s insanely mature for a guy of his age — he’s only 22. He’s very balanced in his approach, but he’s also got a bit of the mongrel about him, which I like and which we saw come out at Monza last year in that battle with Lewis Hamilton. I think Lewis looked after Leclerc pretty well in that race, when he could have put the both of them into the wall. Anyway, I predict there will be more fireworks from both Charles and Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari this season.
