Hamilton: ‘We’ve got to work harder’ to protect F1 win record from Verstappen

Verstappen could win his 41st grand prix at this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, moving level with Senna.

At just 25, Verstappen could have another 10 to 15 years in F1, meaning Hamilton’s win tally of 103 could be surmountable. 

Speaking in Canada on Thursday, Hamilton was asked about Verstappen and the Red Bull driver potentially challenging some of his F1 records.

“Max has been doing an amazing job,” Hamilton said. “He’s had such an incredible career so far and for sure he’s going to surpass that. Working on getting where the car needs to be to slow him down.”

“He’s got a very long career ahead of him. Absolutely. Ultimately records are there to be broken. He’s got an amazing team but as I said we’ve got to work harder to try to continue to extend it. Hopefully we get to have some [wins] in the last period of time that I get to have some close racing.”

Verstappen is in a similar situation to what Hamilton was in going into the 2017 Canadian GP.

Hamilton matched Senna’s pole position tally of 65 in Montreal.

To commemorate his achievement, Hamilton received a replica Senna helmet after qualifying.

“2017, jeez. I don’t remember it,” he added. “I’d have to see a video or something - I’ve got a bad memory .For me it was very surreal just being five years old watching with my dad and the dream was to be like Ayrton. 

“The dream was to get to F1 and to do something like him, and then to find out you’re equal in terms of results… it’s ultimately unfair because there’s a lot more races in our time compared to back then. Still it was a real honour. They gave me a helmet or something like that so that was very cool.”