The father of Lewis Hamilton, Anthony Hamilton, believes his son could win the 2015 world championship by the middle of the campaign.
You may well be thinking this is a very loyal father backing up his boy for a possible 2nd title in a row and a possible 3rd in the bag before pre-season testing has even begun. Its quite a remarkable statement to make with so little evidence at hand but hardly unsurprising considering the total dominance of Mercedes F1 in 2014.
Hamilton Snr is anticipating Mercedes will be unbeatable again this season and in more realistic prose Hamilton Snr said junior would have to avoid the bad luck that plagued his 30 year old little boy last season. Hamilton won 11 races compared to the 5 team mate Nico Rosberg notched up.
Speaking to a British sports cable broadcaster Hamilton Snr said “You never know, but I think if you look at what Lewis went through last year, we started the year where we felt that if everything had gone well, by mid-year he probably would have won the championship. I think the same thing could potentially happen this year – if he starts well, if the car is good, performance is good, I think Lewis could win the championship again this year.”
Hamilton Snr also believes the inter-team rivalry between Jnr and Rosberg won’t be as intense but could rise to the surface if Rosberg ups his game “I think there is going to be a huge amount of respect for each other and a lot of give and take and I think this season is going to be the most interesting between those guys. At the end of the day it is competition and there is a huge respect and friendship between both boys and it has been there a long, long time – those boys have known each other since they were 13.”
All in all Its a bold statement to make and unashamedly biased, of course your greatest supporter will always give you the greatest support but the first race of the season always throws up a mixed result whoever wins in Australia on March 15th.