Lewis Hamilton will win the British Grand Prix using the racism he experienced at the hands of Nelson Piquet as fuel, according to Mercedes chief Toto Wolff.
For the first time in many years, the seven-time world champion is not one of the front-runners for victory at Silverstone. Instead, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc are the favourites, with Red Bull and Ferrari showing much better performance so far this season.
But Mercedes are bringing a car upgrade with them to Silverstone, one which they hope will help them to close the gap to those two teams ahead of them. "I think Silverstone will be a circuit that suits us a little bit better," said technical director Mike Elliott as he assessed the Silver Arrows' chances.
If they find themselves close enough, Wolff believes Hamilton is best placed to take advantage and produce something special this weekend. "The more adversity Lewis faced in the past, the better his performances," declared the Austrian.
"It's something that fuels him – and if we give him a car which is just a few tenths off the leaders, he will win the race. Him and Silverstone will compensate for a car which is slightly off the pace. But he knows he cannot have miracles."
Wolff is not the only one who believes Hamilton is capable of producing what would be a famous victory this weekend. Ex-F1 racer Juan Pablo Montoya said Verstappen remains the favourite, but said: "Lewis could surprise and Mercedes could surprise. If anybody could surprise in Silverstone, it would be Lewis."
The seven-time race winner added: "You look at Lewis' pace at Barcelona after the incident, he was racing fast enough to fight for the win. His qualifying pace was not there but the race pace was unbelievably quick. He genuinely had pace to go for the win.
"If they have another step and they can keep solving their issues with their car – I think the car has enough speed – if they can solve their issues, you might see Lewis on the podium. He is one of those guys for whom the home race is a big deal. He's won it a number of times and that race for him for some reason, even when things go wrong, he's got the luck on his side so many times."
