Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFormula 1

Mark Webber tips Hamilton for third title

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As far as former Formula One star Mark Webber is concerned, the 2015 world championship is already over - and Lewis Hamilton is the winner.

"It's over, that's all over," said Webber when asked about the title fight between Hamilton and his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg.

"Lewis is completely on fire at the moment," Webber told Reuters in an interview to promote the publication in the UK of his book Aussie Grit: My Formula One Journey.

"Lewis is going to finish the end of the year as a three-time world champion and then it’s in his court to keep that drive and hunger going."

And Webber has worse news still for Rosberg, who he feels might never have a chance to get back on a level footing with Hamilton again.

"With how the cars are now and next year is going to be a tall order for Nico to get the high ground," he said. "Lewis is in a phenomenally confident window at the moment, so that's going to be hard."

Webber added that the German was going through the same sort of 'near miss' hangover after missing out on the title in 2013 that Webber himself experienced at Red Bull after Sebastian Vettel won his first title in 2010.

"The year after [coming second] is probably the hardest. In my personal opinion it was," said Webber.

In other interviews to promote his book, Webber has also complained about the lack of depth in driver talent in Formula One, called on Pastor Maldonado and other drivers who purportedly lack professionalism to leave the championship, and urged Jenson Button to call time on a frustrating spell at McLaren and come join him in sportcars.

"He’d enjoy sportscars and we’d welcome him with open arms," said Webber. "But if he elects to stay a bit longer then [McLaren] might pull a rabbit out of the hat next year and punch where they should be punching."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.