F1 Insider Rejects Lewis Hamilton's Idea of Eighth Championship Win

Sky Sports F1 pundit Naomi Schiff explains why Lewis Hamilton winning his eighth championship is a long-shot.

The 2023 Formula 1 season is off to a rocky start for Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton, and Sky Sports F1 pundit Naomi Schiff believes time is running out for the seven-time champion to secure his eighth title.

Hamilton's dominance of the sport during the hybrid engine era saw him win six of the seven Drivers' titles between 2014 and 2020. His seventh championship triumph tied him with F1 legend Michael Schumacher for the most in history.

But after narrowly missing out on setting the outright record in 2021, Hamilton's hopes of securing his eighth title were dashed by an uncompetitive car in 2022.

The 2023 season got off to an equally disappointing start for Hamilton, with the Brit finishing fifth, over 50 seconds behind race winner Max Verstappen.

Schiff believes that Hamilton's age and the team's struggles will make it difficult for him to achieve his record-breaking milestone. She said on the Sky Sports F1 podcast:

“For him I guess it was the moment that confirmed that really they [Mercedes] were still really much on the back foot and hadn’t made much or any progress in the winter period.

“That for them is probably what is so hard to digest at this point.

“Lewis obviously, and he mentioned it in the Sky Sports exclusive with Simon Lazenby and his lie detector test, is here for his eighth title. He’s waiting and going to stay for it.

“But for him to be in this position, is not putting him in any sort of position to get that eighth title.”

Schiff continued:

“I’m sure there’s a lot of pressure internally, from both drivers, but I guess even more so from Lewis because he’s not getting any younger.

“He’s obviously got Fernando [Alonso] to look up to in terms of how far you can go. But time is of the essence.

“They [Mercedes] spent an entire season struggling and being unhappy with where they were at with the car.

“So to have had this whole winter period and come back even a step backwards from where they were at the last race last season, that is what is so tough to accept. Especially when your customer team [Aston Martin] has managed to smash it.”

Despite retaining faith in its zero sidepod interpretation of the latest technical regulations, Mercedes failed to make the expected progress, with Aston Martin trumping the team at the opening round.

With Red Bull dominating the race and Verstappen aiming to secure his third consecutive Drivers' title, Hamilton has his work cut out for him. As quoted by racefans.net, Hamilton explained:

“I think he will be very, very confident.

“I think they [Red Bull] developed an amazing car last year, they blew away all the records on pretty much everything and I don’t think they were pushing at the end and still were way ahead.

“I don’t think he’ll [Verstappen] slip up. He’s a World Champion and so I wouldn’t question his determination or his focus. I think he will be focused as ever, and it’s our job to catch up.”