Lewis Hamilton is unhappy with Formula One rules which require drivers to preserve their power units over multiple races.
The world champion said he backed off in his pursuit of Sebastian Vettel at the end of the Australian Grand Prix because his current power unit has to last at least seven races. New rules introduced for the 2018 season limit drivers to just three power units for 21 races.
“I had older tyres, he had brand new tyres, yet I was able to manoeuvre the car and get relatively close,” he said. “It was like a magnet, you can’t get the magnet past a certain region.”
“As soon as I got to a point I was able to follow, I got a lot closer than I remember being able to follow in the past here. But I couldn’t get any closer than that. I got the DRS open but they were so quick on the straights at the same time.”
The longer he stayed on Vettel’s tail, the hotter Hamilton’s engine got, which eventually forced him to back off.
“I was having to save the engine, it was overheating. I’ve got to do seven races with this engine, preferably more if I can. So I was on the limiter and I was too hot but I was pushing, I was just like ‘I’m going to keep going’. I was nervous of damaging the engine at the same time. I cooled it down and then it started coming back, I got relatively close.”
During the race Hamilton’s race engineer told him: “We are getting over temp on the PU so introduce some lift-and-coast.”
“I need to push it to the limit right this second,” he replied at one point before backing off later. Hamilton admitted afterwards the team need to work on their communication.
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“I was like ‘Can I fight? Can I go?’ And they were taking their time. So I was thinking ‘I’m going for it’. And I gave it everything in that moment.”
Hamilton then made a mistake at turn nine which cost him over two seconds to Vettel. At that point he began to reconsider whether it was worth chasing the Ferrari down again.
“I was quite close behind in his tow, just nicked the right-front, didn’t make the corner. And after that I was trying to catch up, temperatures again on the limit, constantly being pushed and pulled.
“That goes against my spirit of racing. I want to race right down to the last line. I’m fit enough, I felt good.
“But the way the sport is set up with fuel saving and all these different things, three engines, you can’t. You have to think about that and back off. So it’s probably not exciting for the fans to have seen. But I want to finish my season on those three engines. I don’t want to have to have a fourth.”
FIA president Jean Todt has said one of the goals for Formula One’s new 2021 engines is to have “no fuel consumption limitation” meaning drivers are “able to go from the first lap to the last lap full power.”
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Matteo (@m-bagattini)
26th March 2018, 13:06
I don’t like this neither, I’m all for “push as hard as you can from Friday to the chequered flag” but F1 nowadays is different. So, being fit for it also means being able to do some math with the help of your engineers.
RP (@slotopen)
26th March 2018, 16:49
@m-bagattini
Do we even know he started the race with a full tank? My impression was last year some races were run with less than full fuel. It could be Mercedes’ just expected more laps under caution and under-fueled.
pSynrg (@psynrg)
26th March 2018, 18:11
@slotopen That’s beside the point.
The amount of fuel they carry is balanced against the load they must apply to the engine in order to achieve their goal (win/stay in front/have some in reserve etc.).
Taking into account the load they can place on the engine at any given moment – in other words how long can they run at maximum load, without burning over their fuel flow rate, for the whole season, with only 3 engines.
I appreciate the need for some moderation – but this one is perhaps taking things too far, to say the least.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
26th March 2018, 13:16
He’s right. It’s a bad joke. F1 today is more Le Mans than Le Mans ever was.
Such meerkat
26th March 2018, 16:01
But Le Mans is fun to watch
BA DUM TISH
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
26th March 2018, 16:27
@mg1982 Indeed.
For the 1982 edition of the 24 hours of LeMans (50th) fuel restrictions were imposed. One of the winning drivers, Bell, said fuel restrictions were bad for the spectators.
Because of fuel restrictions cars had to refuel 25 times in 24 hours. At the time it was met with bewilderment.
F1 not only does not refuel as often as endurance cars do, current engines should roughly do the same distance as a 24 h race. Why race gp’s (300km+1lap) when your engine is racing 7, it’s unfair, the result is set from previous races
PMccarthy_is_a_legend (@pmccarthy_is_a_legend)
26th March 2018, 13:16
It’s so hard to be Hamilton fan. He’s great on track, but off it he is just annoying. That comment on Saturday about wiping Vettel’s smile off his face was pretty bad in my opinion. The 3 engines rule is the same for everyone and he’s got the best engine in the field. He’s annoys me every time he is on the mic.
ADUB SMALLBLOCK (@waptraveler)
26th March 2018, 13:40
Oh come on, Hamilton made a bad comment? It was in response to Vettels snide “well, where were you yesterday”. The teams and sponsors make these press conferences bland enough, allow these MEN to have a go at each other sometime!
JettC
26th March 2018, 14:51
Hear hear.
And yes Vettel started off the sore exchange with his sarcastic jibe.
Dewald Nel (@ho3n3r)
26th March 2018, 15:19
Indeed, and we know by now that Hamilton can’t take a joke – mostly because he doesn’t understand them.
Joe (@carbron)
26th March 2018, 13:45
I loved that comment to be honest. Always fun to see a bit of personality in the otherwise-dull press conferences.
Gigantor (@kbdavies)
26th March 2018, 13:45
I think it is time to go and see a doctor. Whatever Lewis Hamilton says “on the mic” seems to be the least of your problems.
Just saying.
Martin
26th March 2018, 13:54
What about the comments from Vettel that prompted this response in the first place? Or does Vettel get a free pass in your opinion?
So? Doesn’t mean its good does it?
erikje
26th March 2018, 15:10
Be careful: No criticism allowed on saint HAM
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
26th March 2018, 15:45
That was a great comment – I think it was exactly what F1 needed to start the season.
Do you want Lewis and Seb schmooching on TV like Italians do?
It got Vettel fired up and you could see the passion in his driving as he sat patiently in 3rd behind Raikonnen proving he’s a worthy 4 time WDC… If only waiting behind other cars for miraculous events made someone a champion…
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
26th March 2018, 16:32
@pmccarthy_is_a_legend Disagreed. It’s comments like these that make me like him, as these rules clearly favour Mercedes, surr he’s only looking from his perspective nevertheless no one at Mercedes would criticize the engine rules they so endearingly fought for.
PMccarthy_is_a_legend (@pmccarthy_is_a_legend)
26th March 2018, 20:45
@peartree I think because English is not your first language it is harder for you to detect, but Ham very often comes across as socially inept, sometimes rude. I don’t know, he is just no charismatic, I like my champions with a bit of charisma.
Having said that I am big fan of his driving skills.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
27th March 2018, 1:59
Ham sometimes does come across as rude, socially inept? I don’t agree, unless you are speaking from the public figure perspective, like the “nephew, tweet scandal”.
English is my first language…
Vettel fan 17 (@)
26th March 2018, 13:26
Three engine rule for a year is stupid. It’s supposed to save cost, but the chances that teams will get by is very low, so they will still use extra engines, and on top of that they get penalties. So effectively it costs more. It’s annoying that drivers have to back off just because they can’t have too much wear on their engine (like Hamilton).
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
26th March 2018, 15:52
@vettelfan17 reliability will play a larger role this year in the standings
Each engine is supposed to last 7 races. Look at Honda and Renault last year. You are essentially destroying the teams for 2 engine supplies and the worst part is the impact the penalties have on the drivers. How can Honda get its footing in F1?
At this point, it’s a fact that the FIA is simply ruled by the dumbest people on earth. It might not be a bad idea for Formula 1 to start giving IQ tests to people just to make sure that they can at least count to 50 and know the difference between 3 and 21 ( the number of engines and the number of races).
They needed more engines, not fewer engines but of course F1 did the exact opposite of what needed to be done.
Bert. Ecclestone
26th March 2018, 13:31
It was dull and now we know the drivers are not going flat out for fear or trashing an engine, it will only get duller the further in we get. Bernie sold Liberty a pup and now he can launch his rival pro formula series with NA V10 and pick up the lost audience. Bernie you are the master puppeteer.
Neil (@neilosjames)
26th March 2018, 13:40
Agree with him, and I assume a decent percentage of his fellow drivers would as well. Obviously these things have always been a part of F1 and always will be to some degree, especially the fuel saving, but I think in recent years they’ve gone a bit too far on the hardware-saving side of things.
Gerben (@mavcovic)
26th March 2018, 13:45
Yes! Racing should be racing and not management.
There is something wrong when drivers don’t want to try to win the race because the engine is needed for 6 more races.
This, together with the downforce problems cars get when they are within 1 second of each other, will make the most boring races in decades.
Please, Liberty Media, fix this problems with the new engine and aerodynamic rules.
monkey
26th March 2018, 15:41
There is no “should”. You make the rules for a game, and the participants play to those rules.
The rules set what the competition measures. F1 is kind of kooky, since ever, in that is pretends to measure drivers AND manufacturers (two distinct championships), upon the same formula. So you never got a ture measure of drivers ever in F1. It is not what F1 ever chose to be.
If they want a ture measure of drivers, then they need to give up on being an engineering challenge, per team. But that is not what makes F1 so compelling. I do like purer drivers racing, but I watch other series for that (although when a team gets to wrench, it is never pure, which is stil fine with me).
If I were Liberty, I’d embrace what makes F1 unique, instead of trying to hide it, and stress manufacturers, and the manufacturer championship more. F1 is a 100-800 person per team sport. Play THAT up.
Having said that, what would be SUPER cool, is to have a Saturday night (after qual) spec-car race for the drivers, on its own championship. Use some sort of car that can flesh out the F1 tracks they are at, but not be too expensive for Liberty, or whoever they contract to, to operate. Probably something akin to a modern Formula Ford.
OR, if that is deemed too expensive, or too much extra logistics, then a Saturday night KF1 race (or even just Rotax) for the drivers. THEN you’d see as pure as you’ll ever get drivers vs drivers.
Lums (@lums)
26th March 2018, 13:54
Has any of you seen this Vid? Channel 4’s quali comparison video (Lewis v Kimi):
http://f1.channel4.com/video/mercedes-ferrari-high-power-party-mode/
The way Lewis throws the car into the corners is seriously ballsy. Even Toto said he din’t think he’d (Lewis) make it in that first sector. Even Vettel asked him where he found speed.
Oh sorry, scratch all ive just said, it was the car + party mode that did all that. Silly me. Very similar to the robot uber that killed a woman last week. A driver was present at the wheel but you know, he believed the car knew how to handle itsself. Bottas should just be a passenger in the car and let the car shine by itself.
I really hope Ferrari and RBR bring the fight to Merc. Cant stand another RBR/Vettel dominance.
JettC
26th March 2018, 14:10
That lap was pure Lewis. As you can see and as most will willingly ignore, the Ferrari was FASTER on the straights!
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
26th March 2018, 17:15
The Williams are fast too on the straights, I doesn’t mean anything.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
26th March 2018, 14:31
I agree – he really threw everything at that lap. At one point I thought he was going to end up with the same result as Bottas. Both of them went for it big time Lewis was god enough to keep it on the track, Bottas wasn’t.
In terms of where did Merv find the time over Ferrari I’d say 75% was the driver and only 25% engine mode on that lap.
Lums (@lums)
26th March 2018, 14:41
Yes! mostly from late breaking.
DaveW (@dmw)
26th March 2018, 14:43
It’s hard to see how Bottas ended up in the wall on turns 1-2 but Hamilton came out OK. Hamilton was all over those curbs. Also in turns 3-4 he looked on the verge of stuffing it in the wall as well. I guess this driving an F1 car thing is harder than it looks. I think with the first race of the year, personally, after watching sportsball for a few months, my eyes seem a bit more fresh and the speed and knife-edge nature of the driving is more apparent. The braking distances look ridiculous, the acceleration shocking, the risks more dangerous.
monkey
26th March 2018, 15:54
If you ever race in real life, and play that game, every time you over indulge in kerbs, you are risking a rogue wave. When all of the harmonics and oscillations add up the wrong way at just the wrong time.
IOW, it is possible Bottas just got back luck on a kerb hit. There is a reason that even LH (or Senna, Alonso, Montoya, Andretti, and any other manhandle when need be types, for that matter) limited their exposure to rogue waves even though most of the time they have plenty of skill margin to handle what usually comes. They only do it when they really need to, or sometimes now and again to remember they can.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
26th March 2018, 16:36
@lums yes I have to agree that Ham really wrung the car, but Ham was only capable of that because the car is so agile, only the merc drivers can throw throw their cars like that, bottas in monaco last year is another good example.
Lums (@lums)
26th March 2018, 18:22
What about Bottas this past saturday? Are you saying the Redbull cars are not agile? Or you domt think he’d be capable of throwing any car on the grid like that?
Serious questions by the way.
iCarbs (@icarby)
29th March 2018, 22:55
So let me get this straight Merc + party mode isn’t quicker than Ferr + party mode (don’t tell me they don’t have a qualifying mode!). Cornering and break performance was immense! from HAM or was it the car or was it both or was it luck? It looks like he was 2 10’ths quicker on each section.
I wonder if Riccardo watched this?
Now i understand why HAM is fearful of the Bahrain race due to the number of straights… should be a good race if it’s mixed at the front.
Robbie (@robbie)
26th March 2018, 14:13
I don’t think LH would be alone with his ‘spirit of racing’ comment. I think all drivers must feel the same way. Since there has been no motivation for the big teams to do anything other than spend their way into oblivion, 1500 staff and all, leaving the smaller teams in the dust, they have had to have this limit to the number of engines thrust upon them.
I think it is as Horner has been saying. At some point the teams will have all been heard, Liberty and Brawn knowing that teams have their own agendas and thus having to read between those lines, and they will have to lead by saying ok, we’ve heard you all, now here’s what F1 will look like in 2021.
They’ve already spoken of less costly engines, and less worry about fuel in the next era. I’m confident there are many combinations of the aspects of F1 that can be combined like never before to come up with satisfactory solutions for all. Less aero dependency, less ability to create a big wake etc etc.
Joao (@johnmilk)
26th March 2018, 14:34
The tyres don’t let them race, the engine rules don’t let them race, the aerodynamics don’t let them race, the teams don’t let them race. Until what point is this going to continue? I will still be watching within two weeks, but things are getting ridiculous. They have been restricting the rules in order to bunch up the field, there are still cars miles ahead, at least give them space for innovation.
FIA has come up with a bible that is perfect for them, they ask for reliability but I’m sure in their little heads they think “well yes, we want only 3 engines per season, but teams are capable of using them at peak performance every race, no worries there”. They want to control costs on the engine, fine by me, instead of a tyre war, lets create an engine war, allow all the manufacturers to present whatever engine they want (no time you will see people with different tech, you know like Formula 1 used to be, a ground for innovation). Enforce some rules on the price those manufacturers can sell the engines, ultimately that is what they want, isn’t it? To relief financial pressure from the smaller teams? The big ones will still be able to use their hybrid systems or whatever they think helps them sell cars and energy drinks (wait, this ones don’t want that do they?).
Lets not even get started on the tyres, if they want to keep this ridiculous amount of compounds at least let them choose whatever tyres they want and the rules can be scrapped. Week in week out we have to listen to Pirelli tell us the amount of strategies there will be just for them to use always the same. Tactical freedom comes from liberating tyre rules (since that is the only tactical aspect there is). Enforcing teams to use a specific tyre during the race, mandating compounds and have the top 10 start with the tyre they did the qualifying on is exactly the contrary (teams know the day before what the competition will do, what is the point?)
Aerodynamics is the only thing I still have hope it will be solved, looking at you Ross Brawn
Seann (@canuckfan)
26th March 2018, 15:13
If aero was reduced by at least 50%, that would be a partial return to competitive racing. Increase mechanical grip, and let the teams use whatever tires they wish. Then we might see more passing, and more interesting racing. JMHO
DaveW (@dmw)
26th March 2018, 14:51
I feel like people don’t remember when F1 cars seemingly had to be treated like your dad’s restored MG to get through a race, with temperamental and weak clutches, glitchy electronic systems, gearboxes that magically lost gears through a race. Managing the car has always been a part of this sport. Always. There has never been a time when drivers could ruthlessly wring out the car from lights to flag. This is like a golden era of reliability and car integrity. The things being managed these days are fuel and cooling, which are kind of rule-proving exceptions, because both represent performance compromises rather than design limitations.
Robbie (@robbie)
26th March 2018, 17:04
So then you’re saying they’ve replaced having to baby cars with weak links, with having to baby cars to make engines last many races. So no change there. At the same time they’re watching fuel usage, as they have had to in the past. Now they also have to baby the tires to get them to work properly and they’ll degrade while following another car.
Somehow though, I don’t recall F1 in the past being referred to as ‘Lemans’ wrt it’s leaning toward an endurance series as opposed to something more like a sprint.
No, there’s something different about now vs the past and I think it is the amount of overall conservation needed over several aspects of the cars all at once. Perhaps one aspect is that in the past there was much less help from the pits wrt monitoring and conservation, so more was in the hands of the drivers. Now the drivers are micromanaged to drive to certain lap deltas eg, LH getting caught out because they thought they had room to conserve while still staying ahead of the Ferraris after the VSC and the actual Safety car.
Joseph (@bigjoe)
26th March 2018, 14:51
To me there is a very simple solution. Just ban pit radios from the next race on, then Lewis and Kimi to name two, can push on like they wanted and either come in/slow down when they feel the motor and tyres are stretched or stay out slide around on worn tyres/blow their engines and take a grid penalty in next race. It might get messy, but they’d be racing.
I’m not going to think anything less of Mercedes as a car company if Lewis rings the neck of his motor for 4 race wins then blows it up on the 5th.
ECWDanSelby (@ecwdanselby)
26th March 2018, 15:45
Couldn’t agree more. The only thing i’d edit on that is ‘ban team to driver’ radio comms, so we can still hear the driver’s thoughts.
Velocityboy (@velocityboy)
26th March 2018, 17:44
+1
TazW
26th March 2018, 15:33
@DaveW
You are BANG ON!. Managing fuel, tires, engine life has ALWAYS been a part of F1. Not sure where the “push as hard as you can from Friday to the chequered flag” nostalgia comes from.
Teams will always under fuel, and will always try to maximize tire life.
socksolid (@socksolid)
26th March 2018, 15:51
Hybrid fuel saving oil burners. The key element to create a processional race controlled by electronics and spreadsheets. Going to be like this until 2021.
Markp
26th March 2018, 15:54
He is complety correct but you cannot cost save and push to the limits all the time. I say screw the cost saving, Ferrari, Merc, RedBull etc can afford to have new engines every race so let them, top drivers having to use every last bit of performance from these cars every lap.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
26th March 2018, 15:58
Wrong sport Lewis – I know you love to race but you picked the wrong sport or F1 has evolved out of racing over the past decade. Racing is not listed anywhere as a mission statement or even a requirement for F1. The last thing the competition wants to do is race against you (except for Max and maybe Daniel)
Jere (@jerejj)
26th March 2018, 16:05
Fuel-saving has always existed in F1 to some extent even during the refuelling era. Of course, not to the same extent as before and after it, but still.
mmertens (@mmertens)
26th March 2018, 16:18
Well, for sure it’s not fun to not be able to race 100% all the time, but as already said in other comments, F1 always had management to be done by drivers. Ex: not to overrev, brake management, tires management, fuel management. This has been since the 1950’s, and this is also a great characteristic of great drivers and teams, exploiting the most performance without braking the car.
For me the best would not have any input for the team and let the drivers sort themselves on the race. Maybe Lewis would have overtook Seb and blow his engine by the end of the race, who knows? But it’s up to the drivers to decide. Also, since the rules are the same for everyone, maybe Mercedes were too aggressive on under cooling their cars in first place. (They already did that with brakes in the past). It’s a trade of, reliability vs performance. The rules are the same for everyone. The less “tutoring” on drivers, the better. This and more circuits like Albert Park, Suzuka and Interlagos, where drivers get punished for their mistakes (as Bottas found out). All these bits add much more unforced variety to the races.
ram (@)
26th March 2018, 17:02
This was the 1st race since Imola 1988 that I turned off. I knew after last year that there was not going to be any passing in the last 20 laps.
If there is No passing it’s not really racing. Its called a parade.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
26th March 2018, 17:19
Looks like Hamilton hasn’t been the one that follows for so long that it’s as if he discovered a new world.
Robbie (@robbie)
26th March 2018, 18:44
Lol, well in fact I recall him complaining after he won the 2015 WDC, and then started to phone it in. That was when Nico started his 7 win streak going into 2016. It was the race after the US GP as I recall, WDC locked up, but when he found himself behind NR he stated you can’t pass with these cars, and he wanted the team to take extraordinary steps to help him get ahead of Nico, which they did not do.
He knows it’s very difficult in dirty air, in fact would have experienced that last year too, like when VB was ordered to let him by to go after a Ferrari which he couldn’t get past anyway. LH of all people should be thanking his lucky stars that Mercedes has that extra boost for Q3, and I’m sure he does.
Chip McDonald (@chipmcdonald)
26th March 2018, 17:58
It’s odd that even when it’s Lewis Hamilton saying this truth, there are still people coming out of the woodwork to insist “it’s always been this way!” , “things are great, the fans love it!”.
It’s my contention that this is just another aspect of leading us to a spec series, GP1, as they close up all of the regs leaving effectively “Spec by Bureaucratic Proxy”.
“But this is what the manufacturers want!”, the Invisible chant? Except if you examine the evidence, there iare not a
lot of manufacturers clamoring to get into F1. “Cost saving!” except it isn’t, they’ll still spend the maximum regardless of the number of eng… “Power units”.
I love F1, but hate what it’s become. Lewis speaks the truth.
dutchtreat (@dutchtreat)
26th March 2018, 19:13
Do I understand this correctly? If you go to your 8th race you can put in a new engine without penalty if you have not replaced an engine before? But if engine #1 blows in race #5, you get a grid penalty. Now that engine has to last through race #12??
Mehow
26th March 2018, 19:27
No you have 3 engines per season. 21 races / 3 = AVG 7 engines per race for best results to power.
You can replace them at any time you like, but power to length means you should Aim for 7 races to be most productive in power.
Markp
26th March 2018, 20:49
No you can change engines any time but only 3 engines can be used over 21 races. Could use a new engine for each of the 1st 3 races but then cannot use any new engine specs later in the year as that would be a 4th engine and so on. Gearboxes are different for some reason and have to last a fixed number of races.
Sun Siyuan (@peking901)
27th March 2018, 3:29
Yeah, you should get on a rocket and fly to the moon. That suits your spirit.
Jon (@johns23)
27th March 2018, 4:54
Name 1 driver that does like it. Couldn’t name 1 i reckon
TazW
27th March 2018, 5:26
I’m not sure what race everyone else was watching. I was hooked up until Lewis locked up and lost 2 seconds to Vettel. Up until then, there was the building drama of will he / won’t he.
Once Lewis locked up, he knew his engine couldn’t get him close again so he dialed it down and lived to fight another day.
kanan
29th March 2018, 2:15
Umm, I may somewhat understand the engine thing, but complaining about managing fuel is a bit weird. Adding more fuel won’t make the car faster overall. The fuel load is optimized based on weight and performance. It’s a bit weird if a driver is not aware of this concept. I don’t know but putting something like a minimum fuel limit sounds like an artificial thing to give the impression that they are pushing more, but actually it won’t be making them faster. I’d say that’s more against the spirit of racing. There’s always trade-off when you change stuff.