London, England - Lewis Hamilton has told Formula One’s cynics that the rules of the sport should not be ripped up to slow him down.
The world champion was replying to Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, who called on the FIA to limit the superiority of Hamilton’s Mercedes team to make the season a more even fight. Horner’s view was supported on Monday by Bernie Ecclestone, the sport’s commercial boss, who said: “Red Bull is 100 percent right. There is a rule I think former FIA president Max Mosley put in that in the event of a particular team or engine supplier doing something magic, which Mercedes has done, the FIA can level up things. Mercedes has done a first-class job. We need to change things a little bit now.
“What we should have done was frozen the Mercedes engine and leave everybody else to do what they want so they could have caught up. We should support the FIA to make changes.”
The indications on Monday were that the FIA, the sport’s rule-makers, would not rush to act on Ecclestone’s words, which may have been intended primarily to soothe Red Bull, whose motorsport adviser Helmut Marko said it might walk away in light of rules that “will kill the sport”.
SPOT THE IRONY
Hamilton, celebrating his 34th career victory in Melbourne, detected an irony in Red Bull’s criticism. Also on the podium was Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who, as a Red Bull driver, won four consecutive championships from 2010. On Sunday it was third-placed Vettel’s turn to finish more than half a minute behind Hamilton and his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.
Hamilton said: “I was sitting next to Sebastian after the race and I said: ‘Sebastian, you did this for four years. You were 30 seconds ahead. So I know how it must have felt back then.’
“He had nobody behind pushing him. At least I’ve got my team-mate, who I was really racing. I don’t remember that ever being the case with Red Bull.”
Ouch, even though Mark Webber did sometimes push Vettel, and not all of the German’s championships were comfortable, with his first title coming down to a four-way decider in Abu Dhabi.
Hamilton added: “If you want to put somebody in the same car, there is no doubt where I would be finishing. People say it’s all the car. Well, it’s a big team that built this car. I’m the one who has to get in and extract the best from it. There has never been a driver that has won the championship that hasn’t had a great car that year. There’s nobody who had a Marussia and won the world championship, is there? Fangio still had a great car.”
Hamilton’s views will be shared by those who believe Mercedes should be allowed to reap the rewards for its hard work, but Red Bull’s Marko said: “We will evaluate the situation again in the summer. If we are totally dissatisfied, we could contemplate an F1 exit.
“Yes, the danger is there that Mr Mateschitz loses his passion for F1.”
Daily Mail