Three months after a controversial climax at last year’s championship in Abu Dhabi, a new F1 season begins this weekend in Bahrain. Hamilton, who missed out on an eighth World Drivers’ title to Max Verstappen in painful circumstances, is hoping to set the record straight this season and surpass Michael Schumacher’s World Drivers’ Championship record. However, in pre-season Verstappen set the fastest time while Red Bull’s car looked stronger than its Ferrari and Mercedes counterparts.
Hamilton said he “don’t think we’ll be competing for wins” at the start of the season as the veteran England driver tries to master his new car.
AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly, who spent a few laps following Hamilton on the final day of testing, backed up the Mercedes driver’s claim that the car was a handful.
According to the BBC, the Frenchman said: “I could see Lewis was struggling and I think they have some work to do to fight at the top. But these are just tests.
Away from the track, Hamilton has a long history of lending his voice to political issues that matter to him.
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Competing in Abu Dhabi last season, he wore a rainbow-coloured helmet to protest against the county’s repressive LGBTQ+ laws, despite being the most vocal F1 driver on the circuit when the movement Black Lives Matter came to a head in 2020.
In 2016, Hamilton admitted he had had a “difficult year” and cited Brexit as a contributing factor, alongside Donald Trump’s election victory and personal loss in the United States.
In November of that year, Hamilton said in a media interview: “I think 2016 has really been a pretty terrible year for the world.
“You have Brexit, you have [Donald] Trump wins the presidency.
A series of changes have been made to try to help smaller teams close the gap between themselves and the bigger teams to make the grid more competitive.
The changes included a cost cap set at a baseline of $145 million [£110million] in 2021, which would then be reduced to $140 million [£106million] and $135 million [£102million] respectively the following two seasons.
Unsure whether the new rules would make F1 more competitive, Hamilton said: “If you look at all the car manufacturers, how they are progressing, it’s all about technology and evolution, so we’re not backing down. ”
According to VBET News, he added, “I don’t even know if it’s a good thing to go back anyway.
“There are certain elements that we can extract more from this sport to make it better, and that’s what everyone is working on.”
The Mercedes driver compared his skepticism over changes to the UK’s exit from the EU.
He continued, “The most interesting time coming up is 2021 and whether they got it right or wrong.
“It’s kind of like the whole Brexit thing, or what’s going on in the United States.
“Who knows if it will be good or bad.
“We’ll just know when we get there.”
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Source: www.express.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-03-18 07:00:00
