{"id":297906,"date":"2023-12-12T18:47:17","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T18:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?p=297906"},"modified":"2023-12-12T18:47:17","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T18:47:17","slug":"horner-heaps-praise-on-sergio-perez-replacement-as-hamilton-gives-mercedes-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/racing\/f1\/horner-heaps-praise-on-sergio-perez-replacement-as-hamilton-gives-mercedes-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"Horner heaps praise on Sergio Perez replacement as Hamilton gives Mercedes hope"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The 2023 season may be confined to the history books, but Mercedes, Red Bull and the other teams are already hard at work as they look to make performance games in the factories and wind tunnels.<\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton remains laser-focused as he prepares for a critical season with Mercedes. The Silver Arrows finished second in the Constructors’ Championship in 2023 but only amassed fewer than half of the points of champions Red Bull.<\/p>\n

If the legendary Brit is to have any chance of fighting Max Verstappen and claiming his record-breaking eight World Championship next season then the Brackley-based team need to take giant strides forward over the winter.<\/p>\n

There will also be plenty of eyes on Ferrari and McLaren over the winter. The former claimed the only non-Red Bull win of the campaign in Singapore, while the latter were the most likely team to take race wins away from Verstappen after the summer break.<\/p>\n

Follow along with the Express Sport live blog to stay up to date with all of the winter break news…<\/strong><\/p>\n

Horner talks up Ricciardo AlphaTauri impact<\/h3>\n

Christian Horner has played up the form that Daniel Ricciardo showed upon his return to F1 this season with AlphaTauri on an appearance on the Sky Sports F1<\/em> podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell it\u2019s great to see Daniel back in Formula 1,\u201d he explained. \u201cI think it was something I was very keen to bring him back into the fold over the winter and when he came to us you could see he was pretty much done with Formula 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wasn\u2019t enjoying it, but slowly that smile came back, that energy came back and certainly the test he did in Silverstone for us mid-season was truly, truly impressive and the work behind the scenes on the simulator.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, he deserved the chance in the AlphaTauri, he was unlucky then to break his hand in Zandvoort but I thought he drove very well this year. And most importantly, he put some engineering direction into the team with the experience he had and I think that really benefitted the AlphaTauri team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good morning!<\/h3>\n

The F1 season may be over, but the drama mill is well and truly still spinning. Express Sport will be keeping you up to date with all of the latest news, rumour and reaction as it happens, so grab a coffee and stay tuned.<\/p>\n