---
title: "Hamilton predicts Mercedes has ‘fight on our hands’ with Red Bull in 2021"
canonical: "https://readmotorsport.com/2020/12/15/hamilton-predicts-mercedes-has-fight-on-our-hands-with-red-bull-in-2021/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Hamilton Lyndon-Griffiths"
section: "F1 News"
published: "2020-12-15T10:23:35Z"
modified: "2020-12-15T10:23:37Z"
---

# Hamilton predicts Mercedes has ‘fight on our hands’ with Red Bull in 2021

Lewis Hamilton believes he and Mercedes has a “fight on our hands” in 2021 after Red Bull’s dominant victory in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen’s lights-to-flag win from pole position at the Yas Marina Circuit marked only the fourth time that Mercedes has been beaten this season.

The result handed Red Bull only its second victory of 2020, having triumphed at the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone back in August.

Mercedes duo Valtteri Bottas and Hamilton came home second and third behind Verstappen, as tyre woes meant it struggled to match the Dutchman’s pace.

While Mercedes and Hamilton breezed to both championships for a fourth successive year, the seven-time world champion feels Red Bull’s performance shows it can mount a title challenge in 2021.

“We’ve obviously got a fight on our hands next year,” Hamilton said, as quoted by Motorsport.com.

“Without a doubt, these guys are going to be strong, as this car \[Verstappen\] is driving now is next year’s car pretty much, and the same for us.

“I’m excited for that challenge, and that battle that we hopefully will get.”

Bottas managed to secure the runner-up spot in the drivers’ standings for the second year running despite Verstappen’s victory, with just nine points separating the pair after 17 races.

The Finn said defeat to Red Bull at the season finale will only motivate the team over the winter to come back stronger next year.

“If we think about the big pictures, now in this team, being beaten by Red Bull at the last race of the season, for sure it motivates us even more to work hard over the winter for next year to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Bottas said.

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said it would now try to figure out why it was unable to challenge Red Bull at a circuit it had won at every year since 2014.

“Fundamentally today, we didn’t have the best car,” Shovlin said.

“We need to look at whether we could have got more out of it, whether it was an issue with where we positioned it in terms of set-up or whether it’s something to do with this circuit that’s suiting the Red Bull.

“There’s a lot there that simply we don’t understand right, and that’s just going to sit on the job list of things for us to get stuck into over the next week or so.

“We didn’t have a difference in car pace, so in a way, it was lost yesterday, which was a close battle, but looking at it today, unless we had a car on pole, I think we would have struggled.”