Is Hamilton’s future uncertain?
Sky Sports says it has learned that Lewis Hamilton’s future remains unclear with his future likely to depend on the investigation into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The seven-time champion lost the championship to controversial circumstances on the final lap of 2021’s season-ending race on December 12.
Mercedes withdrew their appeal against the result after the FIA pledged an investigation into the events surrounding the Safety Car procedures. In the weeks following the race, the FIA announced an investigation into what happened. They are reporting “With 69 days to go until the first Grand Prix in Bahrain, it is still unclear whether Lewis Hamilton will be on the grid.”
“In terms of Hamilton coming back to Formula 1, having the appetite to do so and getting over the ‘disillusionment’ that his team boss Toto Wolff said he felt after Abu Dhabi, the onus is on the FIA to deliver on the pledge they made before to see something tangible.” The source at Mercedes says the longer this goes on the worse this situation gets.
Along with fellow Mercedes personnel, the seven-time world champion did not conduct any further media interviews after the race. Hamilton has also not posted on his social media accounts since.
Later the BBC was told that Mercedes had dropped their appeal against the results of the race after agreeing a quid pro quo with the FIA. This deal was said to be that Masi and FIA head of single-seater technical matters Nikolas Tombazis would no longer be in their positions for the 2022 season.
The team are insisting they dropped their appeal after receiving assurances only that the issue would be treated seriously and appropriate action would be taken by the FIA. Last month Toto Wolff said Mercedes would “hold the FIA to account”.
But if Hamilton did decide to step away from F1, it is not immediately obvious who Mercedes would recruit to replace him.
Binotto stays as Ferrari team principal despite restructuring
Mattia Binotto will remain as Ferrari’s team principal following the announcement of a restructuring aimed at streamlining and moving the manufacturer towards electrification.
It’s the first big announcement by CEO Benedetto Vigna, who has been tasked with moving Ferrari into a new era of cleaner, quieter and interconnected mobility. The new structure is designed to sharpen Ferrari’s technology focus and product exclusivity, will see more key operations segments directly report to the CEO, including “Product Development and Research & Development”, “Digital & Data” and “Technologies & Infrastructures”, the company said.
A source told Reuters, that the reduction in middle management was designed to make it faster and more agile. As part of the overhaul, the company appointed Gianmaria Fulgenzi – at Ferrari since 2002 and recently head of supply chain at its racing division, as chief product development officer, it said.
Ernesto Lasalandra was hired from Vigna’s former employer STMicro to become Ferrari’s chief research and development officer. Many of the changes however do not affect the F1 team.
As part of its internal shake-up, the company last month anticipated three top executives were leaving the company, including Chief Technology Officer Michael Leiters and Chief Brand Diversification Officer Nicola Boari, who oversaw Ferrari’s push beyond its luxury sports car business, with the unveiling in June of its first in-house fashion collection.
Ricciardo says homesickness didn’t help in 2021
Daniel Ricciardo believes human emotions such as homesickness are often overlooked in Formula One after opening up about its impact on his early 2021 struggles. The Australian had a difficult first half of 2021, as his McLaren teammate Lando Norris scored double the points before the summer break.
Ricciardo described the first half of last year as “nearly laughable” before he bounced back with a dominant victory in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, McLaren’s first since 2012.
One of the challenges Ricciardo has faced unlike other drivers is not being able to go home after leaving Perth, Australia in June 2020, as the country imposed a ban on all inward travel to stop the spread of coronavirus. In Abu Dhabi, he said he was going home even if he had to quarantine and “stare at a hotel room ceiling for two weeks”, having not seen his parents since June 2020.
Reflecting on his season in an end-of-year interview including Motorsport.com, Ricciardo explained how the inability to see family or friends from Australia made it “probably the first time I’ve ever been homesick”.
“Homesick sounds dramatic, but I definitely missed family and stuff. We’ve normally had the quite fortunate [option] to, if I wanted mum and dad here, I’d say, ‘guys, I’m gonna buy your plane ticket, jump on a plane and come.’ So the ability not to be able to do that as well kind of made it also quite frustrating, because it’s out of our control.”
He says sometimes being in the spotlight you’re not treated like a real person and with travelling so much you do miss loved ones. While it doesn’t affect driving, when it goes wrong all you want is that support and family love.
Ricciardo however wouldn’t pin his tough start last season on missing his family but said it “made the situation a bit more tricky” as he sought to be in the best possible headspace.
He said while he is used to not having his family around, he suggested that going over a year made the start of the season harder to find positive energy.
Ocon learned “quite a lot” from Alonso
Esteban Ocon says he learned “quite a lot” from Alpine teammate Fernando Alonso during their first season as teammates, saying he used the two times champion as a reference point. Alonso returned to the sport last season to partner the Frenchman, marking his third stint with the team.
Ocon took his maiden win with the help of Alonso in Budapest after the Spaniard managed to halt his former teammate Lewis Hamilton’s charge with defensive driving. Together they enjoyed a good relationship on and off-track as they helped the team to finish fifth.
Alonso throughout his career has built a reparation for being uncompressing and difficult to work with, which Ocon was warned about, but once again he said they proved to be untrue and hailed their good working relationship. Asked by Motorsport.com about their partnership when reflecting on the 2021 season, Ocon felt they had a “fantastic collaboration” together, allowing him to learn plenty that helped to raise his game.
Ocon said, “For sure he is a hell of a racer and is extremely fast, and the fastest teammate that I’ve had for a while. I was very happy to work alongside him, but I have learned a lot alongside him. I think just the way Fernando thinks out of the box where some other drivers would not think about.”
“It is pushing the limit to strategies on how we can optimise everything, so on that regard, I have definitely learned a lot. Also on racecraft, I think I have picked up quite a lot of things from him, looking at his first laps, it is something that I’ve always been doing.”
He described working alongside “a legend” as a “privilege.”
It appears that the relationship as teammates is strong, Alonso has already spoken highly of the Frenchman saying that Ocon’s pace helped him get up to speed after his two years away from the sport.
Alonso finished the season seven points ahead of Ocon, while they tied eleven all when it came to qualifying.
How leader Gasly blossomed in “best season so far”
Pierre Gasly has had a difficult start to his first four seasons in F1 but last season the Alpha Tauri driver started to show his talent and emerged as the team leader. The Frenchman finished ninth in the constructors, just five points behind Daniel Ricciardo.
Two and a half years after his demotion to Alpha Tauri, Gasly has steadily emerged as a consistent driver allowing him to regularly be in the mix at the front of the field. He believes he has been performing at his best level showing his real potential, as he started to regularly fighting at the front of the midfield.
Speaking to Motorsport.com, Gasly believes he’s been performing at his best level so far in F1, which allowed him to show his real potential. Saying, “This year has obviously been extremely good, and I think I’ve been in a position to really show my potential, and on more than one occasion as well.”
“If you are at the back of the midfield but let’s, say you have two amazing results and you get a P9 and P8 like twice in a year; even this is unbelievable, and no one will notice you. This year I was in a position where the car was on occasion able to beat the Ferraris and the McLarens.”
Gasly says he was able to sometimes beat Ferrari and McLaren, despite them having three times the budget and it was great to say he has achieved the best in his career so far, as he was able to show his speed and skill. Last year he said his personal ambition was to improve his consistency, admitting he often used to overdrive the car in the past to make up for its deficits.
Adding, “I wanted to work on my consistency because when the car is great it’s fine to perform but sometimes the car is not as good.” Gasly also thinks he has made a good step and became more consistent.
During his half season at Red Bull, he was overshadowed by Max Verstappen, during that time the team became built around the Dutchman. He has now started to become Alpha Tauri’s lead driver, but he has never hidden his hope to return to Red Bull, having been passed over last year.
He says he was now aware of how valuable it was to have a team built around him.
