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Friday, March 25 2022
The very real Hamilton threat Mercedes must deal with, or else...

An underperforming Mercedes car might not be enough to keep Lewis Hamilton interested in extending his stay in Formula 1, according to Sky Sports F1 commentator Martin Brundle.

Hamilton has won six of the last eight world championships and seven of the last 14. He hasn’t finished a season lower than second since 2014, finishing a close runner-up to teammate Nico Rosberg in 2016 and infamously to Max Verstappen on the final lap of last season.

He was widely tipped to contend for his record-breaking eighth title this year, but his Mercedes car was thoroughly outclassed by its Ferrari and Red Bull Racing challengers in the first round. It’s at best the third quickest machine on the grid, and though the team thinks it can bring upgrades in about a month that will cure the worst of its performance issues, there’s no guarantee under new rules that they’ll be enough to keep up with the leaders, never mind close the gap to the front.

Brundle, a nine-time F1 podium getter and long-time respected F1 pundit, thinks an extended stay away from the front of the grid might be enough to convince Hamilton to move on from the sport.

“As long as he still has the motivation to get in the gym and to get on a plane … the hours of debriefing afterwards and the hours of media, talking to the likes of me — that’s what the drivers hate, basically. They just want to drive racing cars,” Brundle told foxsports.com.au.

“As long as he’s still enjoying the bits around F1 or he can tolerate those bits around F1 and balance it out with just loving driving the car, [he’ll stay].

“[But] if he goes through the whole year and Mercedes are third fastest and others are catching them up, then I suspect he’ll take a different view and my enjoyment analogy will play out in that he won’t be enjoying it anymore.”

Hamilton was the lead driver in Bahrain but could qualify only fifth and almost 0.7 seconds off pole. He was running solidly behind the leading pack through the race and only inherited third when both Red Bull Racing cars suffered terminal reliability issues.

While the team has made optimistic sounds about the car’s general philosophy, the results of Sakhir was bad enough for team boss Toto Wolff to manage expectations further downwards.

“It’s too early to look at the championship as it stands,” he said. “If you look at the pecking order today, it seems a long shot to even be in contention for any of the championships.

“Realistically, when you’re third on the road, you can’t think about winning it.”

Hamilton, 37 years old, is in the second year of a three-season deal with Mercedes, and while age appears not to have slowed him, the Briton increasingly talks about post-retirement considerations, this being his 16th campaign.

Some speculated last year that a record-breaking eighth championship would prompt him to wrap it up, and he was reportedly considering his future during the off-season after losing “a little bit of faith in the system” in the aftermath of the now infamous safety car restart at last year’s title decider.

But refusing to let the events of Abu Dhabi define his career has become a key motivator for the Briton, and Brundle thinks it will be enough to sustain him if hey can see improvements coming on tap.

“I think he’s still hugely motivated,” he said. “I think even despite being 37 years old he’s still at the peak of his talent. George Russell will push him hard, and I think he’ll have an answer for that.

“I think he’s such a force of nature.

“What else is he going to do with all that energy and competitive spirit and adrenaline? We’re all adrenaline junkies when we’ve been racing F1 for a number of years.

“Lewis has so many ambitions to change many things around the world — I really admire him for that — and he knows that Formula 1’s a platform to be able to do that.

“So I think as long as he’s still on balance enjoying it and he’s fast enough, he’ll keep doing it, and I think he’ll see beyond a bit of a bumpy ride.”

Posted by: AT 12:20 am   |  Permalink   |  Email
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