Lewis Hamilton has been given extra motivation in his bid to pip Max Verstappen to the World Championship crown in 2024 after Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds made a bet worth £250,000 to charity if any driver can beat the Red Bull star in the standings this season.
Verstappen was nigh-on unbeatable last year, winning 19 out of a possible 22 Grands Prix and breaking countless single-season records en route to his third successive Drivers’ Championship title.
Hamilton, meanwhile, was unable to claim a single race victory as Mercedes ended the year winless for the first time in over a decade. The legendary Brit is still hunting for a record-breaking eighth World Championship, but this will only be possible if the Silver Arrows can produce machinery capable of challenging Red Bull.
Speaking to TNT Sports presenter Jermaine Jenas ahead of pre-season testing in Bahrain, Dodds said: “99 per cent, he gets that trophy. I’ll tell you what, if he doesn’t win it – so there’s 20 drivers in Formula One – If he doesn’t win it… so there’s 19 other drivers – if any of the other 19 drivers win it, we’ll give a quarter of a million dollars to the charity of the other driver that wins it.”
