Harder to fight a rival in the same team – Hamilton

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: Lewis Hamilton admits his battle for the championship with Nico Rosberg this year is made more difficult by the fact they are team mates and have access to each others’ data.

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Lewis Hamilton: ‘intense’ F1 battle with Nico Rosberg like playing poker (The Guardian)

“It is definitely more challenging (than competing against someone from another team), because you have to find ways to create small margins. And so what you do is bring your skills, things that you’ve learned, things you can put into the mix.”

Verstappen has all the ingredients of a champion – Marko (F1)

“He will be 17 when he has his first race, which is pretty young, but I don’t think it is a risk.”

Max Verstappen Q&A (Sky)

“Of course the physical condition has to be better to do an F1 race as you have to do one-and-a-half hour races instead of 35 minutes so we are going to work hard on that.”

Mallya: F1 needs social media rethink (Autosport)

“What I don’t understand is that Bernie doesn’t want to know about social media – he’s a TV man and that’s it.”

Lotus F1 Team Burns Up Record $107.9 Million Loss (Forbes)

“‘The company is having discussions to bring new partners to support its development,’ says Mr Lopez adding that it ‘is notably in discussion with several parties for a long term title sponsorship.'”

Is the Bernie Ecclestone ruling a formula for injustice? (The Lawyer)

“Far from being a symptom of a malfunctioning judicial system, Ecclestone’s settlement was a pragmatic decision that avoided prolonging an expensive trial when it was apparent the prosecution was struggling to surmount the evidentiary [sic] burden.”

Emmo on Fangio, Clark, Spa and other icons (McLaren)

“During 1972, when I was in the process of winning the world championship for Lotus, and during which year Colin [Chapman] and I also began to become good friends, he put his hand on my arm, looked me in the eye, and said, ‘Emerson, I like you. You’re a good bloke. But I don’t want to get too close to you, because…'”

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Comment of the day

PeterG is disappointed other junior Red Bull drivers have been overlooked in favour of Max Verstappen:

For me his age and inexperience in cars is not the issue, My issue is that guys like Antonio Felix da Costa, Carlos Sainz Jnr and Alex Lynn have seemingly been overlooked by someone who may well be great but who is yet to really prove themselves over a full season.

Alex Lynn has been mega in GP3 this year, There’s no way he deserves to be overlooked. Sainz has been impressing for a few years now in GP3 and now Formula Renault 3.5. He’s more than good enough and fully ready to make the step up to F1.

It was the same with Da Costa, He had the pace in Formula Renault 3.5 but was let down by unreliability and some other bits of bad luck. He showed just as much raw speed as Magnussen and Vandoorne yet got overlooked for F1 and then thrown into DTM where he’s fading into oblivion as like many other open wheel drivers he’s struggling to figure DTM out because of the very bespoke way those cars are (the driver sits very far back which gives a very odd feeling for how the car is moving about).

The bigger problem for Lynn and Sainz comes in 2016, Kvyat is doing a brilliant job so I can’t see Red Bull losing him and if Verstappen also impresses then there not going to lose him either (Can’t see them getting rid of Vettel or Ricciardo either).

So where do Lynn and Sainz fit in? Do Red Bull fund them in a rival team, do they drop Red Bull and lose all their funding to risk trying to make it on there own. Look how that worked for Algersuari – his career’s been dead for two to three years as he’s struggled to find new backing.

This decision may well turn out great for Verstappen but its horrible for Red Bull drivers who have already worked through to and have shown great speed and talent in GP2/GP3 and Formula Renault 3.5.
PeterG

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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60 comments on “Harder to fight a rival in the same team – Hamilton”

  1. @keithcollantine – Not sure if it’s worth mentioning or not but Auto Motor und Sport are reporting that a deal has been done between Andre Lotterer and Caterham and he will replace Kobayashi for Belgium only, with Kamui back for Monza. Full story here (in German): http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/formel-1/gp-belgien-andre-lotterer-darf-caterham-fahren-8546461.html

    1. @bradley13 it was in the round-up yesterday

      1. @george Not the AMuS article, this has more infos.

      2. And in this tweet is the weekend’s Super Formula start list, featuring Caldarelli in place of Lotterer: https://twitter.com/Cizeta111/status/501655206514266113

    2. Unfortunately I don’t know german, does it say why only in Belgium?

      1. @mantresx Doesn’t give a reason, just says that so far it’s only planned for Belgium. He’s also a rain specialist which could come handy here, and Caterham would use him to test the new parts the team is bringing – although I don’t understand why they would ditch Kobayashi and not Ericsson in that case, apart from the fact that Koba brings no money to the team, which Lotterer will in the form of Hype, an energy drink company, which is run by former F1 driver Bertrand Gachot.

      2. He has a contract for one race only. He will be using the new CT05B version of the Caterham.

    3. @bradley13 The original story was in yesterday’s round-up. Caterham haven’t said anything either way (yet).

      1. @keithcollantine – Yeah I know, just thought it was interesting that AMuS were reporting it was a done deal :-)

          1. @keithcollantine So, AMuS were right again! I do wonder how they do it…

  2. From the Mallya Autosport article:

    “It’s fantastic. We need someone like that to come and make a presentation to Bernie. Then I think he will be convinced.”

    Wouldn’t work! They’d come in, make the presentation and Bernie would just deadpan ask them “…and how much money will this actually make us?”

    1. @optimaximal While that is an understandable thought line to jump to, I actually think it would be naive to think that Bernie wouldn’t value the concept of “exposure”, after all, thats how F1 teams earn money, is purely off the back of how much “exposure” the car can gain.

      1. F1 teams earn money?

      2. As odd as it may sound it is in Bernie’s interests for the teams not to get any exposure other than through his TV deals. The less exposure the teams get the less sponsors are willing to pay them, which means they need FOM TV money to survive, which in turn makes them less likely to oppose anything Bernie suggests.

        Any idea that doesn’t involve Bernie/FOM making more money will never get approved as it would dilute Bernie’s influence over the sport and prevent shareholders increasing their profits.

  3. Keith, why the “[sic]” after evidentiary in the quote?

    It is a widely used legal term:-

    http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/evidentiary

    1. Because there are many legal terms, phrases and structures which are archaic, incorrect, or plain gobbledygook. Thus, “evidentiary” isn’t a word, it’s only used in legal contexts.

      People tend to assume that because legal language sounds formal, it is likely to be correct. The reverse is actually true.

    2. @tdog F1 Fanatic is written in British English, in which the adjective form of “evidence” is “evidential”. Merriam-Webster is an American English dictionary (see here for an example).

      Blimey, this must the the dullest comment I’ve ever written!

  4. Mclaren wishing nico Hulkenberg a happy birthday,hmmm

    1. A Button-Hulk dynamic in 2015 would be most interesting!

      1. Hulk-Magnussen looks more likely.

        I think McLaren is considering Grosjean and Hulkenberg if their Alonso strategy fails.

    2. They’ve been a bit more ‘open’ in their social media outings lately, they’ve also mentioned Williams drivers winning races, mention drivers who have moved on a long time ago on their ‘on this day’ tweets and congratulated Alonso with his birthday. I wouldn’t read too much into it, especially as I’ve seen more Hamilton tweets from them than Alonso tweets.

      1. But is it making them any money?

    3. @wil-liam I liked that too, McLaren being a little sneaky.

    4. @wil-liam I looked back at their tweets a bit, they also wished Ricciardo, Vettel and Alonso happy birthday in the last one and a half month on Twitter. Can’t read anything into that.

  5. Couldnt agree more with the COTD from @PeterG ..its exactly what I thought when I heard the news about Verstappen. Surely there are more qualified guys that are better bets for Toro Rosso!

    1. I also found it surprising that Da Costa was passed on. They must really know or see something that a lot of us are missing. I’m really wondering if we’ll ever see those others in F1 for the reasons in the COTD.

      Verstappen should have been given a full GP2 season backed by RBR. His F3 results are excellent, but I fear that we have another Algersuari on our hands whose F1 career is over at far too young an age.

      1. @steevkay DaCosta is a waste of time. He had one decent season. Abova that he isn’t even a Red Bull Junior anymore.

    2. @tomcat173
      The thing is, Toro Rosso aren’t actually there to compete, they’re just to train drivers, so having a driver that can pick up the most points for the team isn’t their highest priority.

      So if Red Bull are looking at Verstappen as having higher potential than those other drivers the question is whether his development would be aided more by moving up the ladder one rung at a time or by catapulting him into an F1 seat. In any case however it’s a moot point since apparently in order to tempt him away from other teams’ development programs they had to use the race seat as leverage.

      1. @george
        Fair point, they’re trying to identify and develop special talent, rather than accumulate points and participate like most other teams do. By definition there’s quite a large risk in that approach ie for every Raikkonen or Hamilton you find, there must be 4-5 times as many drivers that dont make the grade and disappear from F1.

      2. @george But Max will be 17 when he races for the first time! It’s not like entering F1 at 19 or 20 is too late.

        I don’t see any reason to give him a drive other than Red Bull had to wow Max and his family is order to prevent him joining Mercedes. Obviously Red Bull did it because they see a future world champion.

        Personally, I think both Esteban Ocon (Lotus backed and Mercedes young driver) could join GP2 and get noticed, but F1? Man, that’s a huge leap but who knows these kids can get there and annoy older and more experienced drivers?

    3. Everyone who signs with Red Bull knows very well the terms of their contracts, I’m pretty sure there isn’t a clause that guarantees an F1 seat if they win a feeder series.

      Sainz, da Costa, Lynn and all the drivers that have ever driven for Red Bull but never made it to F1 should’ve had a plan B, looking for sponsors, raising money, even talking to other teams… and if the contract doesn’t even allow that, then why sign it in the first place?

      It’s just far too risky for anyone who wants to be an F1 driver because even if they do make it to STR it’s only for two years in a slow unreliable car, where no other team will be able to see their true potential.

      1. This is my fear too… STR isn’t exactly a good team to stand out with. Bot RIC and JEF were fairly close which means they pretty much extracted the maximum out of that car.

        RIC did stand out I guess during tests in the RBR car so I hope Max will too.

        If things don’t go so well though he could be out at 19 yrs of age…insane.

      2. Not entirely sure where I got this from but I am pretty sure Frijns turned down the chance to be a Red Bull junior driver for these reasons. Look where he has ended up. Promising talent being overlooked for money. Seems that these days (with the exception of Magnussen that I can think of) new drivers either bring money or are part of the Red Bull junior programme. The better drivers don’t necessarily get the best sponsorship. However, the Red Bull junior programme is solely made up of drivers Red Bull sees as future champions. Either struggle to get money or really prove yourself worthy of a seat in the Toro Rosso.

  6. I love reading Emerson Fittipaldi’s articles as much as he loved listening to stories from Juan
    Manuel Fangio. Emmo’s background, experience and humanity make reading his stories a true pleasure. What a great ambassador he is for F1. Thanks for posting the link @keithcollantine .

    1. @bullmello, me too, I loved the story about the SwissGP where he finished over a minute ahead of the 2nd. place car having lapped all the other cars, just imagine how far ahead he would have been if he hadn’t been managing his tyres (as he must have been because F1 drivers always had too) or if he had been going flat-out ( which he couldn’t have done because F1 drivers never did).

    2. Awesome, awesome article.

  7. I have absolutely no idea why McLaren chose to celebrate Hulkenberg’s birthday with a totally random photo of him staring off into the distance at a driver’s conference, but it sure made me laugh :)

    1. I guess its because that is an official FIA session picture, so they won’t have to think about the rights to the picture

      1. Also it includes both of their drivers so it doesn’t look so much like they’re head hunting.

  8. I’d love the sky boys to mic up Marko during coverage in Belgium…

  9. It will be amazing that Ricciardo wins the title in the end…

  10. Mr. Mallya is right. Bernie needs educating about social media and he doesn’t need too look far from F1 world. Bernie needs to see how some teams and drivers are engaging fans through social media and he will realize the potential within.

    I think half TV content I watch today is either on my computer, tablet or smartphone. Of course I still prefer an HD big screen for live sport events but ignore the complementary role of social media and he potential to reap some fruits out of it is plain ignorance.

    1. F1 could do well to look at its own official feeder series for how to do social media interaction. It has a Twitter account that is actually used: including Q&A sessions with drivers, race updates and handy information such as regulations clarifications. On top of that it has embraced Instagram and Facebook and produced a free magazine.

      1. How dare you suggest that anything to do with Fourmula 1 be FREE!!! He, who must bo obeyed will have you taken outside and shot for blasphemy.
        The problems of loss of interest in F1 cam be summed up in just two words. Sky Sports.l
        The solution has just one extra word. Free to Air!

  11. Don’t tell that to Raikkonen. He’ll laugh at you, Hammie !

  12. Bernie doesn’t want to know about social media. We don’t want to know about Bernie either, but here we are… listening to what the dictator has to say. I’m thankful his years in F1 are close to the end.

  13. If the prosecution were struggling to prove their case why has Bernie had to pay anything at all? Either he’s bought his way out of a conviction, or he’s settled a case he was probably going to win. Neither feels particularly satisfactory.

    1. You may settle because the costs of “winning” would be higher than the settlement (and you never know what may happen in a trial). So would the costs of “losing” in a good fight. Litigation is not free, including for the courts.

  14. I just read what Marko had to say about handing Max Verstappen the STR seat, and there really is some Bull… in there, like this one:

    Toro Rosso is well known for educating and training young drivers, so he comes into [that] environment,

    When did STR ever educate someone? Speed was being bullied and harassed (Luizzi confirmed that one), others never really got much support or choaching but just did their thing and found a way. Those that did not manage to swim record times after getting dropped in at the deep end just got ditched. That is not education, its “survival of the fittest”. Sure, it might work (not convinced it does myself), but its something quite different.

  15. It mus be done with complaining about Antonio Felix DaCosta. He had one decent season but hasn’t showed anything else. Sainz on the other hand was the obvious pick for the STR seat. Verstappen could then show off another season in GP2, which I think is a better step from F3.

  16. Eventhough I’m Dutch and his dad was a childhood hero to me, I tend to agree a yr or two in GP2/FR3.5 would have been better.

    His father also made the jump from F3 to Benetton after winning the German F3 and Masters. Like M.Hamilton said, he came in as the next big thing too and did record two podiums as a rookie. Like his son he was also very exciting to watch and opportunistic but that was also the reason he ended up in the kitty litter too often.

    Jos said of that time that he thought in hindsight that he went to F1 a yr or two too soon and wasn’t ready/mature enough.

    He says his son is more talented and more mature at 16 than he ever was but given his own career trajectory it does surprise me he lets his son go to F1 this soon.

    I hope he is all that they think of him though and to be fair some of his overtakes and the poise he races with in F3 really suggests he is….

    We’ll see

  17. Too many drivers not enough teams.

    1. Too many teams playing it safe by hiring average drivers that should have been moved on years ago, Massa, Button & Sutil being prime examples of drivers that should have been given a P45 at the end of last season (if not earlier).
      I’m not a Red Bull fan but they earned a lot of respect when they replaced Webber (who I love but never seriously considered WDC material) for Ricciardo. If a few more teams were willing to take a risk on younger drivers rather than playing it safe with reliable yet unexceptional guys it would open up a lot more opportunities for the younger generation.

      1. @beneboy F1 hasn’t had a full grid since 1995.

        1. And I’d be the first to celebrate the addition of new team(s) in F1 but my point still stands, if we got rid of some of the safe yet unremarkable drivers that so many teams hire we’d be able to see more young drivers getting a chance in F1.

  18. Daniel (@collettdumbletonhall)
    20th August 2014, 16:42

    I feel sorry for vergne as he’s clearly a talent but there’s not enough room at the top at Red Bull for him. I feel Kyvat and Verstappen will suffer the same fate.
    As talented as Verstappen is wouldn’t an extra few years in single seaters help?

  19. “When I was racing against Kimi
    Raikkonen (in 2007) and Felipe Massa (in
    2008, the year he won the title), they were
    in a different team and their cars had
    different strengths and weaknesses to my
    car and, in my team, it was just me that
    was really competing with them.”

    Hamilton is now stooping to outright and simple lies in his shameless self- aggrandizement. It’s beyond embarrassing.

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