Lewis Hamilton F1 rival mocked by Nico Rosberg as former world champion sets challenge

Preseason testing at the start of the year indicated how far Mercedes and other teams were off the pace from Red Bull.

Perez was initially able to take the challenge to Verstappen with both Red Bull drivers winning two races apiece.

But the Mexican was unable to keep up the fight to Verstappen, who was in a league of his own for the remainder of the year.

Hamilton and co could only watch on in envy with Mercedes rattling their brains on how to catch Red Bull heading into 2024.

Rosberg believes next season won't be the same to this past year and that Hamilton will be among those challenging at the top of the championship.

But the German also mocked Perez for being "all over the place" in his inter-team battle with Verstappen.

“We have to know that it’s not really the dominance of a team, it’s the dominance of a driver,” Rosberg told City A.M.

“If you look at where Sergio Perez was, he was all over the place.

“We just have to respect that the performance from Verstappen is historic and the greatest seasonal performance of all time.

"And he’s already easily nearing to be a top-five driver of all time. It’s phenomenal.

"I do hope that other teams or drivers can give Verstappen a run for his money.

“I expect people like Lewis and George to be the best candidates, and of course McLaren if they’re able to continue their progress.

“I mean there’s Lando Norris, there’s George and Charles Leclerc.”

Hamilton has already had a sneak peek at next year's car and what he briefly saw helped ease his pessimism from the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

"I think it's always difficult,” he said.

“I'm not an engineer or a designer. So it's not easy.

"It's always the exciting time of the year because I have seen the car in the wind tunnel, I always go by the wind tunnel when I go to the factory, to see it evolving in whichever direction it ends up going.

“Literally when I was leaving yesterday again I popped in just to see where we were, and when I come back, it will be again a different animal.

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“I have full faith in everyone that's working on it. And I'm hopeful that we will be in a much more competitive position next year."