Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Singapore, 2018

Hamilton urging Mercedes to bring 2019 parts to Abu Dhabi

2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by and

Lewis Hamilton has urged Mercedes to bring forward the introduction of parts designed for their 2019 car to this year’s season finale in Abu Dhabi.

Mercedes has already introduced some upgrades earlier than planned. Its Singapore development items were brought forward to the Italian Grand Prix two weeks earlier.

Hamilton’s 40 point lead in the drivers’ championship gives him a realistic chance of winning the title before the final race of the year. But he said he is leaving nothing to chance and urging Mercedes to bring forward the arrival of some 2019-specification hardware.

“I pushed them a lot about next year’s car,” said Hamilton following his Singapore Grand Prix victory. “I know what I need improving for next year’s car so I’m pushing their guys because they’re doing designing, to sign off things now for next year’s test already.

“I’m saying can you bring things forward in Abu Dhabi race, please make this component which takes a lot of work, get it to the race because I want to feel it in the race weekend. Rather than the next year, in February or March when we start testing, and it’s too late. Keeping the pressure on these guys.”

However the team has also made strides with understanding how to get the best from its W09 as well as developing it. “We’re going from strength to strength as a team in terms of our understanding of the car, how we utilise the tools we have,” he said. “We’re far more comfortable at out job right now.

“Six races ago we were definitely questioning, we were struggling in this area, we’re still trying to find that bit of magic. But I think we’ve now figured the car out, we know where we are, we know what we’ve got to do to add to it.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2018 F1 season

Browse all 2018 F1 season articles

65 comments on “Hamilton urging Mercedes to bring 2019 parts to Abu Dhabi”

  1. I know this is off topic- There were some on here saying Valtteri would wipe the floor with Lewis once he gets comfortable in the team. A year in, that tone calmed down but the excuses remained: “give him another year, he’ll get up to speed”. Rosberg had to change his life to battle this guy and still couldnt hack it unil reliability lent him a hand in 2016.

    We are watching one of the greatest f1 drivers ever if not the greatest.

    1. @lums Wel said. I remember these fake Bottas fans popping up left and right, same with Rosberg and Button. They support them cause they hate Hamilton for whatever reason, it’s also the same reason you have these fake Vettel fans popping up. When you ask these fake fans why they support them they can’t tell you lol.

      1. @lums
        I don’t think Lewis is the greatest ever, but he is certainly knocking on that door. A great car doesn’t hurt either, otherwise he may have just one. But this last 7 races or so he has been great, he’s in great form.
        I did think Bottas would be closer and beat Lewis more often than he has – might show Bottas isn’t as great as expected or Lewis better than expected……. or a bit of both.

        Lou and Seb in the same team only way to prove who is better, but we wont get that, a few of these guys don’t like to race each other…..

        1. You dont need Lewis and Seb in the same car for comparison on whos better, or we might as well apply that to all drivers on the grid. We dont need Stroll and Max in the same car but we know whos better.

          Lewis has pure pace and better race craft than Seb. Lewis in that Ferrari will be leading the championship right now

          1. Lewis has pure pace and better race craft than Seb.

            How exactly do you know that Lewis is faster?

          2. @kingshark
            Verstappen > Ricciardo > Vettel
            It’s pretty improbable Hamilton comes last on that list.

          3. Too many people brainwashed by the media. When Lewis gets pole it’s always ‘stunning pole’, when both Rosberg and Vettel outqualified Lewis there wasn’t the same hysteria. Verstappen would have got poleo n Sunday without the engine problem.

            I know exactly why fans are trying to claim Lewis is better than Jim Clark and Fangio, it was everythingto do with said fans ego than actually aknowledging Lewis struggled at McLaren for the most part.

          4. @david-br
            Vettel > Webber > Rosberg > Hamilton

            These cross comparisons are always a bit dodgy.

          5. @kingshark Rosberg > Hamilton
            That’s definitely 100% dodgy. Rosberg was never faster than Hamilton over a season or even a few races. How you arrive at that generally over their years racing together is beyond me.
            Webber > Rosberg
            Almost impossible to make any comparison or draw any conclusions given the number of retirements for both over the year.
            Verstappen is very clearly faster than Ricciardo. Was Ricciardo faster than Vettel in their year at RBR? Probably, but you could plead the mitigating factor that Vettel wanted out and may even have underperformed deliberately. If there were a re-run, I’d expect them to be very close.
            Sure, the only way to test who’s really faster between Vettel and Hamilton would be in the same car. Sadly never going to happen.

          6. @david-br
            Webber dominated Rosberg in 2006. The qualifying battle was 12-6, but where Webber truly outclassed Rosberg was race day.

            7 points to 4 really doesn’t show just how dominant Webber was over Rosberg. Webber retired from a net third in Australia, fourth in Malaysia, third in Monaco and fifth in Germany. He should have scored close to 25 points in 2006. Rosberg was never anywhere near the front that season.

            Webber was more dominant over Rosberg than Hamilton was.

        2. A great car doesn’t hurt either

          Nor an ungreat car. In fact, since being beaten in 2007, Alonso has become miraculously greater in inverse proportion to the ungreatness of his car.

          1. What an ace comment, Alonso bigging himself up has become a strong feature of his later career, what he really needs to become the GOAT is to drive the wheels off Stroll’s Williams and then tell us about it.

          2. @F1 Codger I don’t think we could cope with such awesomeness! Must be why he left on a high :oP

          3. @david-br

            If Lewis was that good he would have dominated Alonso in 2008 but he lost 7 times to him in the inferior Renault. He was also beaten by Massa in a fairly equal car.
            Also, Lewis should have been challenging Vettel for his titles, it was left to Alonso in a slower car than the McLaren.

          4. @bigjoe

            If Lewis was that good he would have dominated Alonso in 2008 but he lost 7 times to him in the inferior Renault.

            You realise that Lewis won the WDC that year, robbed it from Massa in the last moments of Massa’s home Grand Prix. It was the last WDZc that Mclaren won.

    2. @lums
      I understand that view. He seems to be distinguishing himself.

      But I remember Vettel’s final season at Red Bull. He seemed untouchable.
      Has Vettel changed? Was it the car? Probably both.

      IF Hamilton keeps this up until the WDC is settled it will be amazing, but the same questions will remain.

      1. In Vettel’s final season at Red Bull was he not blown-to-the-weeds by Ricciardo?

        1. Yes, I misspoke. I believe 2013 was the amazing year he won the last what, 7 races? 2014, his last year at read bull, was challenging.

    3. Crazy enough that was a question that I was asking myself, as to what happened to Rosberg die-hard fans? They seem to have evaporated the day their legend announced shocking retirement. Here is Alonso, he has been in the struggling car for years, but you can still hear his passionate fans.

      1. Wait another year or so… lol.

      2. Rosberg beat Hamilton fair and square. But his likelyness is so low, probably no one one is a fan of rosberg.

        1. He may have beat Hamilton but it was not on pure pace or race craft. Lewis’ poor reliability gave Nico the championship. I don’t really think there are many people who believe 1 on 1 with the same reliability that Nico can beat Lewis over a season.

          Credit to Nico for the performances he put in vs Lewis though. He is clearly a step above Bottas.

          1. By your own logic poor reliabilty of Nicos car gifted Hamilton championship in 2014. Stop beating the reliability drum hamilton lost the title and Nico did put up good performances throughout 2016 to take the title.

          2. @Chaitanya.

            If Nico hadn’t taken Lewis out in Spain Lewis would have won before Abu even with Lewis suffering the only engine problem of all 6 Merc powered cars!!!

          3. chris – just one more ‘trick’ nico learned from Schumacher… lol.

          4. Reliability was key to that Championship. I am sure behind the scenes were other issues connected to the fearce inter-garage rivalry. Mercedes had the strongest car and so they could afford to squander points, and in that way choose their champion.

            I think Rosberg’s victory was a ‘gimme’. His decision to quite the sport shows his heart wasn’t in it,
            he’d achieved his sole goal of matching his father.

          5. By your own logic poor reliabilty of Nicos car gifted Hamilton championship in 2014

            Err no. Just no. You see the thing about logic is you can’t just make stuff up. Do the maths! Even adjusted for reliability issues Rosberg still wouldn’t have won in 2014, where as in 2016 Hamilton would have finished nearly 2 race wins ahead in terms of points

    4. For me, today’s cars do not lend themselves to the drivers performing great feats, so it is hard for me to consider someone such as LH a great, just because of his numbers. For me the greats are from the past when it required so much more bravery to be in F1, and when so much more of the driving was in the drivers’ hands. Nowadays it is tire limited driving, component limited driving, as instructed by the engineers from the pits, drs available, and that does not inspire me that the drivers are performing great feats. I hope for simplification in the next era with at least much less downforce making the cars harder to drive, and no drs. More gladiator vs gladiator racing will help me feel more like the drivers are working harder than they currently do.

      1. We’re in the 21st century, seems like you want cars to have drum brakes, rack & pinyon steering, no seatbelts or helmets.

        In the past, the gladiator v gladiator battle you speak of, are nothing but pure fantasy

        Those drivers of the past you believe are the only true greats, would struggle to drive one of these modern rocket-ships, I strongly doubt it would be the same the other way round.

    5. Rosberg had to change his life to battle this guy and still couldnt hack it unil reliability lent him a hand in 2016.

      Two years have passed, and Lewis’ fanatics still cannot accept that Rosberg won fair and square.
      Lewis was winning poles only to lose them when the racing started. Lewis was gifted at least one win – in Monaco (I’d say Rosberg also deserved to win in Austria that year; Rosberg was faster all weekend than the American-almost-English boy). So, your comment isn’t true.

      I wonder how you people manage to ignore the facts and say whatever possible to diminish achievements of others. Simply put, you’re fanatics, not fans.

      1. You sound so hurt that Lewis is the greatest driver of the current generation. Nico had to change his life, cheat and be lucky that Lewis suffered that dnf that gifted him the championship.

      2. fan is literally short of fanatic

  2. Looking at ferrari and vettel, one can safely assume that abu dhabi can actually become a test race for mercedes and hamilton this year. The championships will mathematically be over by then..

    1. I think the idea that Hamilton plays mind games is sometimes exaggerated, but this maybe one – which is actually perhaps the point, you never know whether it is one or not! Anyhow, making it public that he thinks it likely Abu Dhabi could be a free test weekend, rather than a championship clincher, does seem designed to drive home the idea that Ferrari and Vettel have lost their chance and the title is ‘inevitable.’ If so, it’s a provocation. Last year Ferrari and Vettel over-reached trying to catch up, Ferrari running into engine issues, Vettel colliding (with Hamilton) in Mexico. One more mistake from either and it really is over.

      1. I read it the other way-
        He wants Merc to bring updates to Abu Dhabi just incase the race goes to the wire, He’ll have something extra. It’s that simple

        1. At first I thought so too, but it’s not what he’s actually saying I think (second time round). If it was components to improve his title battle, why wait for Abu Dhabi? And he talks about getting a ‘feel’ of the new components, not making use of them competitively.

        2. PS. I should point out I’m fine with mind games, I think it’s valid (when not personally abusive, which he’s not being).

          1. Luckily ham didnt say bring party dresses from his collection :) last time he said to party back fired (unluckily of course in season opener) but later vettel bit his own words of what goes around comes around comments… competition is good and healthy as long as insults/fists do not fly in the air left and right…

        3. @lums

          He already has something extra. Coincidently as Lewis’ form improved, the Mercedes is now the best car on its tires thanks to the new wheels and hubs.

          1. @bigjoe Of course if Alonso were at Mercedes, these improvements would be down to the brilliant feedback he gives engineers and the fantastic car development that we also saw at, err, Ferrari and, err, McLaren. You can spin the story however hard you want, but the fact is Alonso is leaving F1 after spending years spent helping developing the equivalent of an ice cream truck and no more titles to show after more than a decade. It wouldn’t be necessary to say this were it not for the endless PR extolling Alonso’s wondrous virtues and constant belittling – by people like yourself – of Hamilton’s. Despite actual evidence to the contrary on both counts.

  3. the way he handled those backmarkers at singapore late stage tells me how much HAM has matured as a driver. the difference between HAM and VET is they way they handle pressure and the number of mistakes they make. HAM is way more focussed and less err prone than VET (atleast when it matters). the cars are what they are, reliable most of the time and not some times. HAM delivers when he can and seb screws up multiple times when he does not need to,, that is how HAM will win the WDC.. consistency.. thats my Opinion

    1. Actually I think we saw this last year where Hamilton was very much playing the percentages, ie not taking chances unless he absolutely had to. If Hamilton can’t gain a position then he will settle for the points and bring the car home. By comparison you’ll see the younger drivers forcing their cars into mistakes, taking unnecessary gambles and losing more points than they gain.

      1. Younger drivers and a four times World Champion.

  4. The GREAT ONE has spoken on 2019!! all praise the F1 GOAT! Mbeeh!!

    1. GOAT? Lewis is one of the all time greats but he is no Fangio, Clark, Senna and Schumacher.

      1. @panagiotism-papatheodorou

        No, especially when you include his lacklustre McLaren years and that he hasn’t dominated his team mates as well as the drivers you mention.

        1. Only time will tell where lewis is judged in the pantheon of the greats. His record alone makes him a great. Whether he is the greatest ever will only be noted after he has left the sport. Plus…this GOAT title is purely opinion based unless we use the only definitive metric we have…wins, poles & WDCs.

        2. Senna didn’t ‘dominate’ Prost

          Of all Hamilton’ teammates the only ones any of Schumachers were better than, were Heikki & probably Bottas. And it’s easy to dominate your teammates when it’s in their contracts that they’re there to help Schumacher rather than race him. Hamilton in his prime would wipe the floor with Schumacher.

          Fangio & Clark, I cant comment as I’ve never seen either race and I bet you haven’t either. But you like most who haven’t, likes to throw out there names because you heard all the ‘good’ stories about them.

  5. @david-beau must have been a very rough lemon you ate for dinner? ey?

    1. Probably the same one Lew Lew eats before entering an F1 press conference/interview.

      1. So tiresome and childish. Grow up

  6. A sure sign Lewis thrives on the need to have a dominant car. Where as greats like Alonso, Moss and Senna became greats in literally 3rd rate cars.
    People forget Lewis wasn’t that good at the begining of this season, where Autosport Magazine headlined him as ‘below par’

    1. Also. Autosport analized the tire data from Sunday and concluded the Mercedes’ new wheel and hubs gave them a big advantage running cooler tires where everyone else struggled.
      Suddenly Lewis is the GOAT all over again. Very weird, especially when with such an advantage didn’t show against Verstappen (the next GOAT without doubt)

      1. If people, such as yourself, cannot acknowledge how good Lewis is, especially after 2017 and 2018, then he is never going to get that acknowledgement from you. If you could just appreciate the great driving put on display by him watching F1 would be much more enjoyable for you.

      2. I was going to post the urban dictionary definition of analised, but I’d probably be banned.

      3. @bigjoe ” – but didn’t Hamilton beat Alonso in the same car while in his rookie year? Yet you consider Alonso a great but not Hamilton. How does that work ?

        It’s strange how bias will twist the facts.

        1. Hamilton’s dips in form (including the begining of this year) are too significant compared to Alonso being like a machine each and every season.
          There’s no bias. The facts are available picking any season you like via a downloaded torrent and watching Lewis’s dips in form.

          1. Name me a single driver who has never had a dip in form?

      4. Sound like one of Verstappen’ teenage fans. I bet you havent even watched as far back as 2007. Hah. Check the data Hamilton is statistically the most consistent driver ever. Come here talking about dips in form!

    2. so you are saying that stroll would do as good a job as lewis in a mercedes? a top (may or not be the best) car needs a top driver and lewis is.. he has not as many mistakes as seb (when it matters), and that does make him a great driver. those are the facts!

      MS didnt win just because he only had a good car, he won because he was a great driver in a great car.. TEAM sports!
      just like VER, a great driver in an ok car.. no good can come of that.
      he is mostly the only one who actually fights and beats (and sure loses some) VER in his own game.

    3. Like i’ve said before, Mercedes attempts at man managment is the key reason for Hamilton poorer start to the season. Its what you do when you want to keep your drivers hungry and motivated. Lets not forget, this apparent dip in form also came at a time when Mercedes were in protracted negotiation with Hamilton.

      Unfortunately Mercedes attempts to get Bottas a win, by having him qualify ahead of Hamilton, back fired. Not only is Bottas still without a win, but Mercedes lost valuable points with their futile attempts. Their attempt to ‘write the story’ from a position of superiority may still come back to haunt them.

    4. who was the last driver to win a WDC in a car that did not win the WCC? I’ll give you a hint; it was 10 years ago . but tell us more about needing to have a dominate car…

  7. Shumi alonso hamilton etc the list can go on. All great drivers in their generation. Were they invincible? No not always were they easy to be beaten no not always. But they stand oit because of their exceptional form on track. Stand out moves stand out race wins srand out laps stand out drives. Let giv credit where its due. Now i favour hamilton. But thats my opinion. Statistics help. Emotions sway opinion.the best will always be remembered.

Comments are closed.