Lewis Hamilton reckons the second half of the F1 2024 championship will be a thriller as several teams all look capable of taking victories.

With Red Bull’s dominant 2023 giving way to a much more level playing field in 2024, all four leading teams have won races during recent Grands Prix – and this pattern has been predicted to continue by Lewis Hamilton.

Lewis Hamilton: Close racing ‘fantastic’ for F1

Hamilton finished second on the road in a Mercedes 1-2 at the Belgian Grand Prix, promoted to first when George Russell was later disqualified for his car being underweight.

This win came just a few weeks after his British Grand Prix, his first win since the tail end of 2021, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri winning the race in between as the Australian claimed his first win in a McLaren 1-2 at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Indeed, it’s been four race weekends without a Red Bull victory, although hope isn’t lost for Max Verstappen as the Dutch driver has challenged with leading pace at all four – circumstances having gone against him to cause his longest winless streak since 2020.

Ferrari, McLaren, and Mercedes have now all joined Red Bull as Grand Prix winners this year, and Hamilton said it’s evident F1 is in a healthy place.

“It’s really fantastic, I think, for the sport, to be having such close teams and drivers,” he said. “The pedigree of drivers at the top today is really elite and amazing.

“We didn’t expect to be competing with the McLarens or the Red Bulls at this point in the season, you know, with how we started off, so for us to now have closed up and be… It’s going to be one hell of a second half of the season, for sure.”

But, despite Mercedes claiming two wins in the last three races as the W15 has come on song through the middle part of the year, Hamilton ruled out the possibility of a shock title challenge to see out his time with the Brackley-based squad before making the swap to Ferrari.

“No. It would be high hopes,” he said.

“But, I mean, if we can continue this kind of performance as we’ve had the last few races, which has been fantastic… I think if we can start our weekends off a little bit better, hopefully we can continue.

“I think, obviously, the McLaren was very strong [in Belgium], we were just a bit further ahead early on [in the race], but yeah, we’ve just got to keep pushing.”

While Hamilton will depart Mercedes for Ferrari, George Russell has reason to be optimistic about the team’s progress this year as he’ll be the one staying on to race with the W16.

With Mercedes ending the first half of the F1 2024 season on such a high, Russell said he expects the rest of this season to be all about putting the building blocks in place for next season and a title tilt.

“It’s been a difficult couple of years getting the car into a place where we can consistently fight for victories,” he said.

“But, you know, I’m so motivated, so excited for the second half of the season, which is ultimately building up towards 2025. And when you look at the competition now, you know, there’s no reason why we can’t fight.

“If the season started in Montreal, the championship standings would be looking very, very different. So, you know, it’s going to be great.

“There’s so much, I think there’s so much motivation from all the other teams to get back to the front, from McLaren, from Ferrari, from ourselves. So for sure, it’s not going to be easy. And, you know, hopefully, we see a good fight on our hands into next year.”