Is anyone buying into the "Hamilton may retire" stuff a lot of the F1 media is pushing?
Jacques, well, he is a media whore so anything he posits I take with a truck full of salt. I don't think he is going to retire, I think he is extremely pissed off about Abu Dhabi and is going to come back with a vengeance this season.
Masi is already not on the org chart so.........
In reply to z31maniac :
I don't think he will retire but his silence is driving the pundits crazy. He'll come back strong
I think it was smart to exit the track and disappear for awhile and leave social media as well.
Much better way to process and move on and enjoy the break.
Also his silence is welcomed vs the nonstop bitching and moaning from red bull if the roles were reversed
In reply to z31maniac :
The statement also means he may not retire, too. Which has been a possibility for a while now.
When looking at both possibilities, sure, I buy it.
If you were asking if he WILL retire- that I doubt.
Not a chance in hell that Lewis retires before the season. He is wandering the earth, gathering strength, and intends to go back, crush his enemies and revel in the lamentations of their women.
Or at least try.
I think it's a ploy by Mercedes in their fight with the FIA. Lewis not saying anything lets them dangle the possibility of him retiring, without him being put on the spot. I think he will return rested and ready. At least I hope so. I have to laugh at the Lewis haters who claim he's being a spoiled jerk, or pushing an agenda to get Masi fired, when he hasn't said anything at all. Some people (not here) are so anti-Lewis they will find fault with anything he does or doesn't do. There are some sites out there that are positively ludicrous about this. I hope he comes back and gets number 8, then retires.
I'm an unabashed Hammy fan since his rookie season, so I admit I'm biased.
I'm hoping he comes back, smashes everyone for his 8th and then comes back and gets his 9th just in case there are people who don't think he is up there with Fangio/Clark/Senna/Prost/Schumi/etc.
The one weird thread that always gets me is people who say, "Well he had the best car." Name a WDC who didn't have the best car. Well maybe Button, because once everyone else figured out the double-diffuser he didn't win another race, but had enough points to get the WDC.
Vettel wouldn't have 4 WDC's without Newey, etc, etc. You need a dominant driver and a dominant car to win, it's always been that way.
Hamilton hasn't always had the best car, but that's the knee-jerk reaction. Heck, he didn't have the best car this year and he had won the WDC until the race director overruled the regulations on the last two laps of the last race in order to get a good show.
I expect he'll be back. But writing opinion articles about him is guaranteed site traffic, so the articles will get written. The reason his silence is so noticeable right now is in contrast to the usual Red Bull behavior.
More interestingly - Albon driving for Williams? How did I miss that?
When was the last time car #1 was on the grid? Hamilton decided to keep running #44. Nico never started another race after clinching the WDC. Looks like we have to go back to Vettel using it in 2014. Max is using it this year.
Keith Tanner said:
When was the last time car #1 was on the grid? Hamilton decided to keep running #44. Nico never started another race after clinching the WDC. Looks like we have to go back to Vettel using it in 2014. Max is using it this year.
For all of the Verstappen loving/Hamilton hating people out there, it's interesting to me that Max seems to think he needs to remind people that he won, whereas Hamilton did not when he chose 44.
Is that Max or his dad?
In reply to z31maniac :
Kimi's WDC comes to mind...
Anyone hear when General Admission tickets go on sale for Miami? I have a hotel locked in and air fare is reasonable ish. Just need tickets to the show that aren't 1650 each...
alfadriver said:Keith Tanner said:
When was the last time car #1 was on the grid? Hamilton decided to keep running #44. Nico never started another race after clinching the WDC. Looks like we have to go back to Vettel using it in 2014. Max is using it this year.
For all of the Verstappen loving/Hamilton hating people out there, it's interesting to me that Max seems to think he needs to remind people that he won, whereas Hamilton did not when he chose 44.
Is that Max or his dad?
“Yeah I will run it,” said Verstappen when asked about using the number one. “How many times can you do that? I don’t know, maybe it’s the only time I can in my life. It’s the best number out there. So I will definitely put it on the car.”
Javelin said:In reply to z31maniac :
Kimi's WDC comes to mind...
I agree. But there are always exceptions, I was meaning generally it takes the best driver in the best car.
Look at Alonso who won 2 straight in the Renault with his crazy forced understeer driving for that car, then went to McLaren to get beat up by a rookie.................you know that guy who has 7 WDC who went on to win it the next year. And would have prevented Kimi's sole WDC if not for beaching it in China.
In reply to 84FSP :
Haven't heard anything official on it. inquiries@f1miamigp.com is the email for the organizing staff. They may be able to answer the question.
In reply to Javelin :
So Max thinks it was a fluke?
In reply to alfadriver :
No, he realizes that nothing in racing is guaranteed. There's a video interview of him talking about rewarding his crew for their work, too.
I don't blame Max for running it, although it would be hilarious if it was actually 1*. It just struck me that it's been a long time since we saw it.
Javelin said:In reply to z31maniac :
Kimi's WDC comes to mind...
Vettel in 2010. Given the 4 championships in a row, it's easy to forget that the Red Bull was not stomping everyone in all of those years. 2010 we went into the final race with 4 drivers in contention for the championship, and Vettel didn't even lead the championship until the end.
2001 and 2003 the Ferrari was on par with the McLaren. OTOH, Hakkinen's McLaren was slower than the Ferrari in 1999, if he hadn't broken his leg in a crash then Schumacher would have almost certainly won that year. As it was Eddie Irvine came awfully close to winning.
Mike Krack of BMW Motorsports appointed Team Principal of Aston Martin
bmw88rider said:In reply to 84FSP :
Haven't heard anything official on it. inquiries@f1miamigp.com is the email for the organizing staff. They may be able to answer the question.
Thx - in touch with them but no love yet...
News that I had not heard about- Albert Park is being redone- pretty much completely- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgzWlc3R_XA&ab_channel=F1AustralianGrandPrix
Haas is the first to show their 2022 car- https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.breaking-haas-become-first-team-to-reveal-2022-car-and-livery.6hTev2bioqDq0QuojBQXp9.html
Although, there is considerable discussion of how real this is- being digital and not really reflecting some known changes that Ferrari will be making to the suspension.
But there it is.
In just about 3 weeks, we will see what it really looks like when testing starts in Barcelona. And then another couple of weeks to the real official testing in Bahrain.
I also saw today that the Q2 tire rule is gone for this year. All teams, regardless of where they qualify, will get to choose their starting tire.
Possible Hamilton replacement called up at the last minute to do simulator work?
I really hope he doesn't retire.
In reply to z31maniac :
Hamilton really doesn't seem to do a lot of sim work, so hopefully that's not an indicator.
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