In the round-up: Lewis Hamilton is more likely to stay at Mercedes than switch to Ferrari, says David Coulthard.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Seat fit at the factory today! Making sure the office chair is nice and comfy for the upcoming season!😀💺 #F1 pic.twitter.com/zz5HukEd9u
— Nicholas Latifi (@NicholasLatifi) January 10, 2020
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
More motor racing links of interest:
Coulthard expects Hamilton to stay at Mercedes (Reuters)
"I don’t think he needs the huggy, cuddly, emotional ride that would come with Ferrari. And I don’t believe that Ferrari badge is etched on the inside of his mind since he was a wee kid."
Black Falcon Confirmed as 24H Dubai Winner (Sportscar 365)
"A red flag period was called at 10:17 p.m. on Friday evening after 7 hours, 17 minutes of running, and lasted uninterrupted until the race was officially ended in a joint decision between Creventic and Dubai Autodrome."
"Other drivers have seen their dreams of overall glory dashed but remain in contention for stage wins, such as the duo of Fernando Alonso-Marc Coma (16th at 3 h 18 and first rookie), Nani Roma (28th) at 6 hours 34) and Jakub Przygoński (38th at 8 hours 25). In contrast, Romain Dumas left the Dakar with a bitter taste in his mouth after his car caught fire 65 km into the opening special."
Hanoi’s Formula One track nears finish line (VN Express)
"The 70 percent complete F1 track in Hanoi will be ready for action in March, one month before burning its first rubber."
BMW revives Junior Team with BRDC British F3’s Neil Verhagen (Formula Scout)
"The German manufacturer has launched a racing team that will compete in the Nurburgring Nordschleife-based VLN endurance series and the Nurburgring 24 Hours in a variety of BMW cars, and field only its junior drivers."
We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it in via the contact form.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Comment of the day
Should F1 teams have greater freedom over their tyre set-ups?
The most annoying thing for me about this whole thing is not the 2019 or 2020 tyres, it is that Pirreli are still able to mandate minimum tyre pressures.
The one major tool that the teams had to be able to get the tyres working ‘in the operating window’ was by fine tuning them with the tyre pressure to suit the chassis. Now it is the other way around, or drivers having to drive a specific way to keep the tyres working.
Just think how different a team like Haas season would have been if they were allowed to use tyre pressures to get their tyre working on race day.
@Asanator
There’s still time to enter our Caption Competition – join in here:
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Abdurahman, Brian Frank and Al!
If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is via the contact form or adding to the list here.
DAllein (@)
12th January 2020, 0:15
Couldn’t agree more with David.
I also think that the whole “Lewis to Ferrari” narration is the ill fantasy of bored journalists, who just want to get a “sensation”.
Lewis never needed and doesn’t need them now or in future.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
12th January 2020, 8:07
I think it is just an excuse for journos to bad mouth Ferrari, in the end most of these articles are against Lewis going to Ferrari.
Qeki (@qeki)
12th January 2020, 9:55
Well Ferrari chose Charles and Charles chose Ferrari. He is already a race winner and future champion? Why would they take Lewis to team up with a future Ferrari driver. Same thing with Max and Red Bull. They have each other and they gonna stick it with that for next couple of years.
F1oSaurus (@)
12th January 2020, 18:28
@dallein Well I think it’s also either actual interest from Ferrari since they openly started praising Hamilton all of a sudden. Or Ferrari were just messing with him (or Mercedes)
Robbie (@robbie)
12th January 2020, 19:54
@dallein I don’t see it as ‘the ill fantasy of bored journalists’ at all. This is very normal stuff that has been happening for decades.
LH is seen talking to a Ferrari head at some social events…normal. Ferrari praises LH…normal…what’s not to praise? Ferrari may have even had a serious sitdown with LH…also very normal, for if you don’t ask you certainly don’t get. Of course Ferrari would take him if he indicated he’d be interested.
LH’s contract is coming due and he is starting the sunset of his career ie. if he wants Ferrari it has to be soon. Combine that with the concept that most drivers, it is said, aspire to drive for Ferrari, and why wouldn’t there be some buzz over this? It is not ridiculous for journalists to at least field the topic and toss it around a bit. I personally don’t think LH will or should go to Ferrari, but I can sure understand a bit of buzz around the topic. It’s not exactly tabloidy imho, it is to be expected.
Markus (@aesto)
12th January 2020, 0:18
Re: Cotd
When teams were still allowed to decide their own tyre pressures, it led to a bunch of blowouts and bad press for Pirelli. Given that teams will always try to push the envelope, there is no way to prevent that without mandating tyre pressures. Why would Pirelli want to put up with that?
Clay
12th January 2020, 1:09
I kinda think teams set their own pressures for decades and there were no huge issues. So why does Pirelli need a narrow operating window when Bridgestone, Michelin and Goodyear did not?
Markus (@aesto)
12th January 2020, 1:41
1) Does it even matter? It’s required for Pirelli’s tyres to be safe, and that should be the end of the story.
2) The difference is that Pirelli was instructed to create a tyre that degrades and eventually falls off a cliff. Evidently that doesn’t mix well with low pressures. Bridgestone & Michelin by contrast had a completely different objective – create the best possible tyre for Ferrari & McLaren.
bosyber (@bosyber)
12th January 2020, 3:47
Interesting points @aesto; though not sure I agree entirely, I do think that is quite valid, and to your second point: those cars could then do lots of testing to get everything about car/tyre interaction completely mapped out, while the other teams had less df and traction, and we expected less from them.
F1oSaurus (@)
12th January 2020, 18:31
@aesto
First of all, they weren’t “instructed” they proposed that themselves when they tried to win the original tyre bid. Michelin was proposing tyres that lasted longer (and less would be needed). So it wsa NOT the FIA who came with this idea
Second, the tyre blow outs had nothing to do with the degradation. The problem was that the construction is too weak to deal with the off road excursions that the drivers tend to take. That’s why Mercedes told their drivers to stay on track in Spa after Rosberg had a blow out. And they had none after. While Vettel kept blowing off track and he did have another blowout.
Martin
13th January 2020, 13:35
You are demonstrably wrong, e.g.
– Nikolas Tomazis: FIA head of Single Seater Technical Matters
Pat Symonds:
Jere (@jerejj)
12th January 2020, 18:00
@aesto Precisely. I couldn’t agree more with you on that. I share the same views as well. Some things are best not to give to the teams to do themselves.
Dale Wickenheiser
12th January 2020, 1:10
Hamilton – and the point of moving to Ferrari would be what? More money? A chance at a title? Silly talk.
COTD – Can we please let them race?! post-race fuel mins, mandated tire pressures, grid penalties, qualifying tire rules – It’s the pinnacle of motor sport and it’s nit-picked to death.
Martin
13th January 2020, 13:36
Winning a title with 3 different teams?
Kurik
14th January 2020, 9:06
The only reason I see him moving is winning titles in three teams but I dont think the lure is good enough. Hamilton personality and lifestyle would not work in Ferrari also he has a limited window of chances to beat the all time record. Best to do that with a solid team behind him for the next 2-3 years.
Selbbin (@selbbin)
12th January 2020, 1:56
Hamilton will never drive for Ferrari. It would be too corporate and restrictive. He didn’t even like the seriousness of McLaren back in the day and was partly lured to Mercedes by the promised freedom.
Vettel idolised Schumacher, so it makes sense he always dreamed of Ferrari. Hamilton idolised Senna, who never drove for Ferrari.
If Mercedes leave they’ll merge back with McLaren, given the engine deal and history (now that Dennis is gone). That’s where he’ll go if Mercedes are out.
Jon Bee
12th January 2020, 6:19
To the best of my knowledge, Lewis Hamilton doesn’t speak any foreign languages. He’d been a fool to go anywhere near Ferrari with their history of backstabbing, empire building and dishonesty towards drivers that goes back even further than when John Surtees drove for them.
By the way I’ve not seen anything written about Colin Seeley who died recently. Although most associated with motorcycle sport, he was also involved – to his cost – with Bernie when he ran Brabham.
anon
12th January 2020, 8:24
In the case of Surtees, Forghieri has claimed that the reason why Enzo turned on him is because a journalist convinced him that Surtees was leaking information on the P3 to Lola when they were developing the T70 (Surtees was one of their test drivers at the time). It’s probably not true, but given the early prototype of the T70 did look similar to the P3, you can see why Enzo might have believed that Surtees was betraying him.
rpaco
12th January 2020, 11:13
“To the best of my knowledge, Lewis Hamilton doesn’t speak any foreign languages. He’d been a fool to go anywhere near Ferrari”
I agree, he would be off balance trying to learn the language, not understanding fully what his team members are saying. In that situation you cannot feel part of the team or trust what he thinks they may have said. Mechanics and engineers can understand one another across language barriers with a few figures and sketches. I used to convey details to Italian suppliers and later to Japanese engineers. But to trust your life to that when you are not an engineer is a different matter.
Martin
13th January 2020, 13:39
According to Will Buxton he learned French to work better with his ART engineers
MG1982 (@mg1982)
12th January 2020, 7:38
True. But I have doubts it will be a good bet for Ferrari too to get HAM. He’ll be too old and most likely past his prime to make the requiered difference anymore. Nobody can “cheat” age, we’ve seen already what happened with M.Schumacher (vs. Rosberg), how Rossi is performing for quite some years now against the younger guys etc. Ferrari better get RIC or someone younger to replace VET, not someone older… no matter how good they may seem now.
bob (@riptide)
12th January 2020, 10:47
Not necessarily. Vettel soundly beaten and retires, but Leclerc shows he is still prone to silly errors and has issues with the demands of a sustained WDC campaign due to inexperience at that level. Sign Hamilton on a two year deal and all he would have to do is win one championship for the Ferrari. That’s it. I’m sure Ferrari would take that after all this time in the championship winning wilderness.
F1oSaurus (@)
12th January 2020, 18:35
@mg1982 True Ferrari should have signed Hamilton already for 2017 or 2018. At least Hamilton would have won that championship for Ferrari.
Still Hamilton has at least 3 good years in him and if Ferrari manage to produce a competitive car like 2017 or 2018, Hamilton is a much better bet than Leclerc would be. Hamilton drives at the maximum, but he also brings the car home. Leclerc has proven this season again that he also is too erratic (not as bad as Vettel of course, but still)
Mahesh (@m47e57)
12th January 2020, 11:48
Whatever does he mean by huggy, cuddly, emotional ride???
praxis (@praxis)
12th January 2020, 19:21
Yeah, those words are more interesting than the message itself.
Jere (@jerejj)
12th January 2020, 18:01
I share the same views as DC.
BTW, I quite like Latifi’s helmet-design and color-scheme.