Lewis Hamilton – Syndication Server

Hamilton gave me no time to react to departure – Wolff

Toto Wolff says the timing of Lewis Hamilton’s decision to move to Ferrari left him unable to react in the driver market. Hamilton signed with Ferrari at the start of this year, with the seven-time world champion moving to Maranello in 2025. The …

Toto Wolff says the timing of Lewis Hamilton’s decision to move to Ferrari left him unable to react in the driver market.

Hamilton signed with Ferrari at the start of this year, with the seven-time world champion moving to Maranello in 2025. The announcement of the switch was made on February 1, prior to the start of the current season but a matter of weeks after multiple leading drivers had signed contract extensions at their current teams, something Wolff says caught him out.

“I always see an opportunity in change,” Wolff said in the recently-released book ‘Inside Mercedes F1: Life in the Fast Lane’. “For a minute, I was in disbelief at the timing of it. The next we talked about what it meant for the team.

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“I like the situation. It helps us because it avoids the moment where we need to tell the sport’s most iconic driver that we went to stop.

“There’s a reason why we only signed a one-plus-one-year contract. We’re in a sport where cognitive sharpness is extremely important, and I believe everyone has a shelf life. So I need to look at the next generation. It’s the same in soccer. Managers like Sir Alex Ferguson or Pep Guardiola. They anticipated it in the performance of their top stars and brought in junior players who drove the team for the next years.

“I absolutely had it on my radar that Lewis would go. I just couldn’t understand why he’d change to another team before we knew if we were going to be competitive. It also didn’t give me any time to react. I had to emergency call our partners, and I possibly missed out on negotiating with other drivers who had signed contracts a few weeks earlier like Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris.”

Wolff was reflecting on the situation nearer the time, and despite it leaving him with a tough decision to make – eventually promoting Andrea Kimi Antonelli – he says it was not damaging to the relationship between himself and Hamilton.

“It put us on the back foot, and that had a commercial impact. But do I take that personally? This was a business decision. We’ve enjoyed such a successful journey together, and now we have our own objectives. This didn’t even move the needle for me. I’m thick-skinned. I’ve had some pretty tough moments in my life, and this doesn’t compare.”

Hamilton on Colapinto: ‘He’s earned his right to be here’

Franco Colapinto is ignoring speculation that he could secure a race seat elsewhere in 2025 amid strong praise of his performance at Williams from Lewis Hamilton at a media conference (pictured above) ahead of this weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix. …

Williams promoted Colapinto in place of Logan Sargeant shortly after the summer break, and the rookie has been extremely impressive in scoring points in two of his five races so far. Finishing no lower than 12th to date, Colapinto has been linked with a move to RB or Stake in 2025, but he says he is unaware of whether Williams would allow him to leave.

“I think I shouldn’t be the person asked about that,” Colapinto said. “Of course, I don’t know the answer, and I guess yes, I think if Williams cannot give me a race seat, I think the normal thing is that they allow me to go somewhere else and that they find the best opportunity for me for the future. But I’m not the right person to be asked. I should be the last one.

“I’m here with Williams this weekend and I’m going to try to do my best here in Brazil. It’s a very exciting race, great atmosphere, and I cannot wait to be driving the Williams around Interlagos. I think for the future, it will be great that it happens. I thought I was not going to be racing in F1 next year, and that’s still my first view, so I don’t really get too excited about whatever they’re talking about.”

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Colapinto’s performance have not gone unnoticed by his peers, with Hamilton effusive in praising the job the Argentine rookie has done so far and urging his management to leave no stone unturned in trying to secure a race seat.

“I think he’s done an incredible job, last-minute to be called upon and thrown into the deep end in this sport,” Hamilton said. “The majority of us, if we’re lucky to get in the sport, we have a bit of a run-up.

“If you look at young Kimi [Antonelli] for example, he’s got a lot of test days before his race, I think he’ll have something like 20 days in the car, which is unprecedented. Whereas for this guy here he didn’t have that — he just jumped straight in and he did a fantastic job. It’s always great to see young people, young talented individuals get the opportunity to come through and shine, and I think he did that in the first race.”

For his part, Colapinto says he’s not paying attention to rumors that Red Bull could be interested in adding him to the team’s driver pool.

“I would like to be in Formula 1. I came very late in the year, and I got an amazing opportunity by Williams, by James [Vowles, team principal]. Sven [Smeets, sporting director], everyone in the team gave me a lot of trust, confidence to put me in that race seat. And I got an amazing chance that I was not expecting to get this year.

“I tried to do my best and have the best results possible to show that I deserve to sit here — that’s what I’m trying to show and to achieve. And if it’s not next year, I hope that it’s in ’26 or ’27.

“I’m not really having much pressure or anything like that. I’m trying to enjoy the moment, enjoy the opportunity that I’ve got. It was my dream since I was very little to drive a Formula 1 car and now to be here doing these last nine races, it’s very special.”

Hamilton was particularly impressed by his own on-track duel with Colapinto.

“We had a great little battle — it was super-safe, hard but fair, and I think he’s earned his right to be here,” Hamilton said. “There’s still a seat available, and he’s saying it’s not for him to decide but my advice would be… I would be pushing on my side, making sure I do absolutely everything.

“At the end of the day he’s got to just continue to focus on doing his job every weekend, as he is. Hopefully he’s got good people behind him who are doing the right job to make sure he’s here racing next year.”

Verstappen’s defending tactics need addressing – Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton believes Max Verstappen’s approach to defending needs to be addressed by the FIA amid a focus on driving standard guidelines. Verstappen overtook Lando Norris at the start of the United States Grand Prix with a move up the inside that …

Lewis Hamilton believes Max Verstappen’s approach to defending needs to be addressed by the FIA amid a focus on driving standard guidelines.

Verstappen overtook Lando Norris at the start of the United States Grand Prix with a move up the inside that led to both cars running off track at the exit of the corner, and then had to defend from the McLaren later on at Turn 12, again resulting in both cars going off.

On the second occasion, Norris rejoined ahead after having moved slightly in front of the Red Bull before the braking zone, but received a five-second time penalty because Verstappen had braked late enough to be ahead at the apex despite not making the corner. The current guidelines prioritize the first car to reach the apex over making the corner itself, and Hamilton believes that needs to be revisited.

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“It’s always been a gray area, that’s why he’s got away with it for so long,” Hamilton said. “I mean, they probably need to make some adjustments for sure.

“Also, we do have inconsistencies through rulings, weekend in, weekend out, obviously depending on which year it is. As a sport, we do need to level up on all areas and if you look at other global sports, they have full-time refs, for example. I’m sure that wouldn’t be a bad thing for our sport.

“But I experienced it many times with Max. You shouldn’t be able to just launch the car on the inside and be ahead and then you go off and still hold your position. So, they need to definitely work on this.”

As the driver currently competing against Verstappen for a championship, Norris said Verstappen is able to take further advantage of the fact that he holds a comfortable lead.

“Clearly Max is very good at what he does, and is probably the best in the world at what he does,” Norris said. “So when I’m going up against the best in the world, it’s not going to be an easy thing to do. And he’s been racing in this position for longer than I have.

“I’m definitely not doing a perfect job, but I’m not doing a bad job. I’m still staying there, I’m avoiding collisions, which a lot of things that we’ve done could have easily been and turned into worse things, like bigger crashes and stuff. And I’ve avoided them and stayed in races which easily could have ended earlier than they have.

“There’s certain things I don’t agree with. But I still want to be racing — I don’t want there to be rules for absolutely everything. I just believe the slight way of how I got a penalty last weekend, and the consequence of how that happened, I didn’t agree with, and that’s the only thing I think that needs to be changed.

“But it’s clear what his intentions are. It’s a difficult route for me to get around, getting caught up in collisions and things like Turn 1 easily could have been, or Turn 12 easily could have been. So he’s in a much more powerful position than I am, it’s up to me and the team to try and overcome that.”

McLaren has lodged a petition for a right of review of the penalty Norris was given in Austin, with a hearing to take place on Friday afternoon.

Suspension issue triggers miserable day at COTA for Hamilton, Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton says a suspension problem ahead of the Sprint race was the catalyst for a “terrible” day as he dropped out in Q1 at the United States Grand Prix. Mercedes looked quick throughout the Sprint Shootout on Friday evening but a yellow flag …

Lewis Hamilton says a suspension problem ahead of the Sprint race was the catalyst for a “terrible” day as he dropped out in Q1 at the United States Grand Prix.

Mercedes looked quick throughout the Sprint Shootout on Friday evening but a yellow flag on Hamilton’s final lap prevented him from having a chance of setting the fastest time. A largely uncompetitive run to sixth place in the Sprint was put down to a suspension issue, but Hamilton believes there was an issue with the car’s configuration after that as he finished 19th in qualifying.

“It’s been pretty terrible,” Hamilton said. “The car felt great yesterday, so obviously came really optimistic for today. Something failed on the front suspension literally as we pulled away from the line for the formation lap, and I had that through the race. They figured that out, they changed the corner, and it felt like a mess, obviously, through qualifying.”

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With the Sprint weekend taking on a different format that gives teams just one practice session, Hamilton said the failure is frustrating given the pace Mercedes has shown.

“I don’t know what the result… This shouldn’t happen, and it’s obviously not planned,” he said.

“I was about to qualify [on] pole yesterday, so it’s not a mental problem. When the suspension is failing or breaking, and things aren’t coming together, I mean today … you’ll have to ask the team what happened with the suspension. I know the guys are working as hard as they can; they did the change.

“Any performance we bring is positive. All of a sudden [yesterday] we were looking really quick. I don’t know where that went, but we’ll keep pushing.”

Hamilton says a fightback drive is unlikely in Sunday’s race, as he will start from 18th due to Liam Lawson’s grid penalty.

“There’s not going to be a lot going on. I started in karts with a pretty bad go-kart and used to come through the field, so I’ll see if I can do that tomorrow.”

Wolff hopes Mercedes upgrades will allow it to end Hamilton partnership on a high

Toto Wolff says Mercedes is hoping its upgrade for the United States Grand Prix will allow it to end the season in strong fashion and sign off its partnership with Lewis Hamilton on a high. Hamilton is moving to Ferrari in 2025 having been part of …

Toto Wolff says Mercedes is hoping its upgrade for the United States Grand Prix will allow it to end the season in strong fashion and sign off its partnership with Lewis Hamilton on a high.

Hamilton is moving to Ferrari in 2025 having been part of the Mercedes team since 2013, winning six of his seven drivers’ championships with the team. Mercedes will be bringing its final development package of the year to Circuit of the Americas this weekend, and Wolff says the aim is for it to make the team more competitive in both the short and long-term, but also give Hamilton a chance of adding to this season’s two victories.

“This weekend marks the start of an intense run to the end of the year,” Wolff said. “We have six races over the next eight weeks, ending with the season finale in Abu Dhabi. Although we are not in contention for the championships, there is still plenty to fight for and the opportunity to create a few highlights along the way. We want to end this year as strongly as possible, build momentum for 2025, and bid farewell to Lewis in the best way possible.

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“We have therefore been hard at work since Singapore analyzing our performance and how we can improve. We bring our final update package of the season to Texas and our aim is to close the gap to the front. It will also provide useful information that will help guide our development direction for 2025.”

Last year’s race in Austin saw Hamilton in the mix for victory only to be disqualified post-race for having excessive wear on his plank, and Wolff says Mercedes needs to be wary of its set-up due to the fact it will only have one practice session to dial in its upgrade.

“The Sprint format returns this weekend, and we will have to be at our best to introduce the update package effectively. The Circuit of the Americas is a fantastic track but one that caught us out last year. Its high-speed layout, combined with its bumpy surface, make it a challenge for both the car and driver. It is one we are looking forward to.”

Car ‘came alive’ in Singapore after poor qualifying runs – Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton says his qualifying form has been a struggle this year but that his car came alive as he managed to secure a top three start at the Singapore Grand Prix. McLaren’s Lando Norris beat Max Verstappen to pole position, with Hamilton …

Lewis Hamilton says his qualifying form has been a struggle this year but that his car came alive as he managed to secure a top three start at the Singapore Grand Prix.

McLaren’s Lando Norris beat Max Verstappen to pole position, with Hamilton qualifying third, just over 0.3s adrift of his fellow Brit. Hamilton says he was finding the handling of his car difficult throughout the weekend until qualifying started, but then had far more confidence and was able to threaten the higher positions.

“Oh man, qualifying has been a disaster for me all year long and I’ve just been working and working and working trying to get myself back up there, and all of a sudden the car came alive in qualifying for the first time in a long time,” Hamilton said. “It was a little bit of a shame because we were getting into rhythm — it was the same for all of us, but getting that lap at the end was a little bit tricky.

“I think there was maybe a tiny bit more left in the car, but I’m really grateful for it. And the mechanics, we’ve been moving up and down on balance, we’ve changed everything this weekend on each day, and the mechanics have just been faultless, so I want to say a big thank you to them, and I hope that we’re in a good position to fight for the front tomorrow.”

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Although Norris had a clear advantage, Hamilton was a little over 0.1s away from Verstappen’s time and he says if he had put together a better final lap he could have beaten the Red Bull.

“I’m not saying it’s a surprise, but through the weekend so far, we were looking, well, I was looking particularly very poor,” he said. “This morning and all of yesterday, we were 1.2s off these guys. We arrived with a car that was massively understeery, and we just couldn’t dial anything in. No matter what we did, nothing changed.

“Made changes overnight, came here today, pretty much the same thing, and I was definitely shocked to see that we were still 1.2s behind Lando again. We just kept our heads down, kept not giving up, and we made some more changes and got into this session, and it was like night and day. Such a big difference.

“The car was all of a sudden alive, and I was able to go where I wanted to go. It was looking really strong throughout qualifying and I think [the crash in Q3 made it difficult] for all of us to put that final lap together.

“I think my lap was also nothing special — very difficult to get the tires perfect and not overslide them. I had a lot of snaps, so I think with a better job, maybe we could have been front row … but I don’t know whether or not we could have beaten [Norris] today. Still really, really happy.”

Hamilton critical of ‘racial element’ to FIA president’s wording of language complaint

Lewis Hamilton says he’s unhappy at FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s choice of words when telling drivers not to swear so much, believing there to be a racial element to his comments. Ben Sulayem told Autosport he has asked Formula One …

Lewis Hamilton says he’s unhappy at FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s choice of words when telling drivers not to swear so much, believing there to be a racial element to his comments.

Ben Sulayem told Autosport he has asked Formula One Management (FOM) to think about what is put out to air, but that the drivers also need to try and have more restraint during races, saying, “We have to differentiate between our sport — motorsport — and rap music. We’re not rappers …They say the f-word how many times per minute? We are not on that. That’s them and we are [us].”

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Among the most senior drivers on the grid, Hamilton was understanding of the request, but criticized the connotations of the language Ben Sulayem used himself in the interview.

“I think there’s two segments to that,” Hamilton said. “I’ve only heard of that today. On one side, when I was 22, I didn’t think of it as much and it was more your emotions are just firing and you’re saying whatever comes to mind, forgetting how many people are listening and the kids that are listening, all those kinds of things.

“I agree in that sense that you listen to some of the younger drivers, and they’ve not got it yet. And at some stage, they probably will. I’m sure if there’s penalties for it, people will stop it. I don’t know whether that’s something that’s needed. I definitely think there is a little bit too much of it.

“And then just with what he’s saying, I don’t like how he’s expressed it, saying that [about] rappers is very stereotypical. You think about most rappers are black. That really kind of points it towards, when he says ‘we’re not like them’… so I think those are the wrong choice of words. There’s a racial element there.

“But as I said, I agree with the fact that I think cleaning up a little bit [would be good]. Also, it’s good to have some emotions. We’re not robots. And for me, the way I control it is because there’s over 2,000 people that are working towards me having this position and being where I am.

“Obviously I’ve got a lot of followers of all ages, but it’s not about me. And even though I’m having this experience on-track, what I do and what I say affects all those people who are sacrificing time with their families, who are giving absolutely everything for me to have this privileged position and opportunity. So I think it’s just understanding that, and putting the aggression somewhere else. That’s what I try and do.”

Many other drivers have criticized Ben Sulayem’s request, suggesting radio messages that contain swearing should simply not be broadcast.

Hamilton furious with himself after qualifying sixth

Lewis Hamilton was “absolutely furious” to qualify sixth for the Italian Grand Prix, as he believes his mistakes cost him a chance of pole position. Mercedes was competitive throughout the session and Hamilton was provisionally on the second row …

Lewis Hamilton was “absolutely furious” to qualify sixth for the Italian Grand Prix, as he believes his mistakes cost him a chance of pole position.

Mercedes was competitive throughout the session and Hamilton was provisionally on the second row after his first run of Q3, before slipping to sixth with his final lap. The top six were covered by just 0.186s in total, and Hamilton says he didn’t put a clean lap together that cost him a chance of beating Lando Norris’ benchmark.

“Absolutely furious,” Hamilton told Sky Sports. “I could have been on pole. I could have been at least on the front row. I didn’t do the job in the end. I lost a tenth and a half into Turn 1 and 2 and then I lost another tenth at the last corner. No one to blame but myself. Qualifying has been my weakness for a minute now and I can’t figure it out. I’ll keep trying. “

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While Hamilton looks to reset ahead of the race, he joked that Mercedes might be better off once he moves to Ferrari and is replaced by Andrea Kimi Antonelli in 2025.

“Probably a little bit of kicking myself over the next couple of hours. Ultimately I’ve got to move forwards. We have a good race car, the team have done an amazing job this weekend,” he said. “The car has been feeling much better than the last race and the team deserve better. Maybe they’ll get that with Kimi.”

Hamilton also believes he is unlikely to be in the mix for victory from sixth on the grid, given how close the field is in terms of outright performance.

“The chance of fighting for a race win is out the window and tomorrow I’ve got to try and recover as much as I can, and see if I can get past the Ferraris and try challenging to get a podium.”

Hamilton leads Mercedes one-two in final Italian GP practice

Lewis Hamilton led teammate George Russell to the top of the timesheets in final practice at the Italian Grand Prix while Max Verstappen languished more than a quarter of a second off the pace. The Mercedes drivers set their fastest time with around …

Lewis Hamilton led teammate George Russell to the top of the timesheets in final practice at the Italian Grand Prix while Max Verstappen languished more than a quarter of a second off the pace.

The Mercedes drivers set their fastest time with around 10 minutes to go in the session as among the last of the front-runners to embark on their ultimate flying laps, capitalizing on most of the track evolution. Russell set his time first, but the Briton complained that the lap had “felt pretty rubbish” and that the “balance is quite a long way off.”

Hamilton immediately bettered it, but by only 0.093s, setting the benchmark at 1m20.117s.

Charles Leclerc was third fastest, the Ferrari driver only 0.109s off the pace, but the Monegasque set his best lap on 13-lap-old soft tires rather than a fresh set, masking what could have been session-topping pace.

Oscar Piastri slotted into fourth and 0.026s further back after he and Leclerc found themselves under the microscope of race control for impeding in an awkward run-in during the final flying laps. Television showed Piastri appearing to shove Leclerc towards the right-side grass exiting the second Lesmo in what could have been retribution for being blocked earlier around the lap. But subsequent replays revealed Piastri had been attempting to get out of the way of the fast-approaching Daniel Ricciardo to his left, giving the impression of a clumsy accident. Though all three cars escaped damage, the matter was referred to the stewards for a post-session investigation.

Lando Norris slotted into fifth just 0.01s slower than Piastri, but of considerable more intrigue was his 0.106s advantage over Verstappen in sixth.

Verstappen struggled through several attempts at a flying lap but found his efforts stymied by a recalcitrant RB20 that couldn’t navigate the middle sector with any sort of competitive speed.

“The car doesn’t turn low speed or medium speed,” he radioed after setting his best time 0.251 off Hamilton’s benchmark.

Carlos Sainz was seventh for Ferrari and 0.346s off the pace, his best time coming on heavily used soft tires.

Alex Albon led the midfield in eighth ahead of new teammate Franco Colapinto, who was 0.309s back in ninth.

Nico Hulkenberg was the fastest driver in the first sector but ended 10th and 0.826s off the pace, pipping 11th-placed Fernando Alonso to the place by 0.025s.

Daniel Ricciardo was 12th despite having his first flying lap blocked by the Piastri-Leclerc incident, but his second attempt moved him up to 12th and 0.064s ahead of teammate Yuki Tsunoda despite the Australian not being equipped with the car’s latest upgrade package.

Pierre Gasly was 14th ahead of Lance Stroll, Kevin Magnussen — the Haas driver was instructed to stop on track at the end of the session with a technical problem — and Esteban Ocon.

Sergio Perez saved his soft tire run until late but botched his lap, lacking grip through the first sector and running off the road at the Roggia chicane, leaving him 18th and 1.17s off the pace.

Sauber teammates Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu finished bottom of the order in 19th and 20th.

Hamilton tops second Italian GP practice after Red Bull fumble

Lewis Hamilton led a very tight top five after Max Verstappen failed to string together a clean lap in second practice at the Italian Grand Prix. Hamilton set the benchmark at 1m20.738s early in the session before switching to race runs, which were …

Lewis Hamilton led a very tight top five after Max Verstappen failed to string together a clean lap in second practice at the Italian Grand Prix.

Hamilton set the benchmark at 1m20.738s early in the session before switching to race runs, which were less impressive relative to the field and characterized by several complaints about an overheating seat. The time was only just enough to take top spot for Hamilton, with the top five cars — all from the front-running four teams — separated by just 0.154s.

Lando Norris was next in the order, the McLaren driver just 0.003s adrift, while Carlos Sainz generated optimism for Ferrari’s home crowd by lapping exactly 0.1s further back.

Oscar Piastri briefly looked set to blitz the field on his qualifying run in the first 15 minutes, his McLaren claiming the fastest time in the first two sectors, but the Australian failed to improve on even his personal-best time in the final split, leaving him 0.12s off the pace in fourth. Had he combined his first two purple sectors with his personal best time in the third sector, he’d have leapt up to third in the order.

Charles Leclerc completed the top five group in his Ferrari, 0.154s off the pace.

George Russell joined the leading pack in sixth with a late lap on softs in his rebuilt Mercedes. The Briton lost the first 22 minutes of the session to the final phase of the significant repairs required for his Mercedes after young gun Andrea Kimi Antonelli heavily crashed at Parabolica early in FP1.

Russell spent most of his truncated session on race runs, bolting on the soft tire only in the final five minutes, making his lap an unrepresentative 0.348s slower than his teammate’s headline lap. But his time was at least closer to the mark than the efforts from both Verstappen and Sergio Perez at Red Bull Racing, neither of whom was able to string together a clean lap.

Verstappen’s qualifying simulation run was spoiled by a snap at Parabolica that ruined the lap. He ended the session 14th and 0.872s off the pace, his best lap one he completed on mediums.

Perez, meanwhile, lost the first 23 minutes of the hour-long session to system checks following a precautionary gearbox change made between sessions, leaving him 15th.

Heading the midfield was Nico Hulkenberg, who was seventh in lieu of Red Bull Racing. He finished 0.16s ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll completing the top 10.

Valtteri Bottas was 11th ahead of the crashed-out Kevin Magnussen, who triggered a 12-minute red flag halfway through the session when he carried too much speed into the second Lesmo and spun off the road. His Haas skipped over the gravel before crashing into the barriers with his left-front corner, his afternoon ending on the spot.

Alex Albon was 13th ahead of the Red Bull Racing pair.

Yuki Tsunoda was 16th in his upgraded RB, lapping 0.435s slower than teammate Ricciardo despite the Australian not benefiting from the full update package.

Debutant Franco Colapinto was 17th for Williams and only 0.192s slower than new teammate Albon.

Alpine pair Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon were 18th and 19th ahead of Zhou Guanyu at the back of the pack.