Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Yas Marina, 2019

Hamilton using number one on his car for practice run

2019 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton is running the number one on his car as a one-off at the start of practice in Abu Dhabi, as he did last year.

As the reigning world champion, Hamilton is the only driver with the right to use the number one on his car. However he prefers to use his career number 44.

Last year Mercedes were given permission to use the number one on the front of his car at the start of practice for the first race of the year, but with its true number 44 still on the engine cover. The team is doing the same again today.

Mercedes said Hamilton will only use the number one on his car for a single run during the first practice session.

Apart from the change of number, Hamilton said he had a fairly “usual Friday”

“I was struggling to get into the rhythm today, but you have your good and bad days,” he said. “Nonetheless, the car still felt good, but there’s definitely areas that we can work on as a team and areas for me to work on personally.

“I’ll just sit down tonight and make sure to get that straight for tomorrow. I’ve been trying to explore some new avenues with the car. We already know where it works well, so I’m pushing the car into different places, just trying to see if there’s anywhere else I can exploit the car and the tyres for the future.”

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Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Yas Marina, 2019
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Yas Marina, 2019

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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17 comments on “Hamilton using number one on his car for practice run”

  1. Interesting… maybe this is to help materialize next year WDC

  2. I wish he used ‘1’ all year along. I think the ‘1’ is so meaningful. And it would be clear to every casual viewer who is the defending champion.

    1. I look to see who has 44 on their car, and then I know who’s the defending champion. Sad but true. On a different note I just spent a moment there wondering what would have happened if Rosberg stuck around a little longer. I, like most, suspect Lewis would have came out on top more often than not, but surely it wouldn’t have been this easy and would had to have resulted in a split.

  3. LH44 is a big thing now. Not many athletes across sports have managed such a great association with their number.

    But of course, using no. 1 is a big thing (esp. for Mercedes). So, I guess it is nice he acquiesces to their demands once in a while

    1. VR46…

      1. He said not many, not no one.

    2. sumedh, in the US, at least, it seems to be a more common trend, and what is also reasonably common is the association of a particular number with a certain team.

      Formula 1 used to be like that from 1974 through to 1995 where, apart from the team the WDC holder was driving for, the rest of the grid usually had fixed numbers (a few teams did change numbers . It meant that there were several instances of a driver becoming associated with a particular number in that period too – Nigel Mansell and “red five”, or both Gilles Villeneuve and Jean Alesi being associated with No. 27.

      1. Villeneuve’s association with no. 27 is one that I’ve always found curious, considering that he only raced with that number for one and a bit seasons. He raced with the following numbers:

        1977 – 40, 21, 11 (one race each)
        1978 – 12
        1979 – 12
        1980 – 2
        1981 – 27
        1982 – 27

        Ferrari’s numbers from 1974 to 1979 were 11 & 12 (except in 1976 when they were 1 & 2 on account of Lauda being reigning WDC). They were 1 & 2 in 1980 after Scheckter won the 1979 championship (Lotus taking 11 & 12), and then took 27 & 28 from Williams for 1981 after Jones won in 1980.

        So Villeneuve actually carried number 12 for longer than he did number 27, but was more associated with 27 probably because he carried that number at Imola in ’82, footage of that race having been shown many times since.

        Similarly with George Best and Manchester United. He is commonly associated with number 7, but when classic footage of him is shown, he is often wearing a different number (usually 8 or 10).

  4. This is the second year they’ve done this and it is silly. If this is such a thing for Mercedes; I’m assuming they are the ones driving this rather than Hamilton because his personal brand is so tied to the number 44; then surely they can come to an agreement with Hamilton which will see him adopt the number 1 next season.

  5. The story last year, and maybe this year, is its for the his mechanics. Photo ops for their family album and bragging rights.

  6. I still feel that it should be mandatory for the reigning champion to run with #1 the next year.

    There’s just something special to me seeing the world champion with the #1 on the car & I really hate how Lewis hasn’t wanted to run it & therefore it hasn’t been on the grid the last few years. I just hope that it’s something future champions opt to bring back.

    1. He is not the only champion not to do it. I think Mark Marques is another one. And valentino rossi.

      1. @david-beau, you are correct about Marquez and Rossi both using their own numbers (93 and 46 respectively), rather than using No.1, when they have been the defending champion in MotoGP.

        You could also add Lorenzo to that list – he has once used No.1 in 2011 after winning the title in 2010, but when he won subsequent titles in 2012 and 2015, he chose to stick with his standard number (99) instead of using No.1. I think that 2012 was the last season where No.1 was used in MotoGP, as Casey Stoner opted to use it – in recent years, it seems most of the recent champions in MotoGP have been more closely associated with their normal number and prefer to use that in place of No.1.

        @stefmeister, it’s only because the sport mandated fixed numbers in the 1970s that the idea of the champion being given No.1 became a thing. Whilst defending champions started to use No.1 more frequently in the late 1960s and early 1970s during a season, it wasn’t a fixed custom – drivers like Fangio and Ascari in the 1950s, Surtees, Hill and Brabham from the 1960s or even Fittipaldi and Stewart in the 1970s would use other numbers.

        The first driver to use No.1 throughout an entire season was Ronnie Peterson, who used it for the whole of the 1974 season – even though he never won a championship (he’d only finished 3rd in 1973). It wasn’t until Fittipaldi in 1975 that, for the first time, the defending champion used No.1 during the whole season.

        Having the defending champion use No.1 only has any significance because people arbitrarily decided that they wanted to make it significant – using No.1 before that had no more meaning than using any other number.

  7. It’s so pleasant to see a car bearing the #1 . God, I simply hate that driver’s number rule!

  8. Nice to see that for a change. To be honest, I still incline towards the number system determined by the team´s position in the previous year´s Constructor Championship more. It´s rather sentimental, but there was something nice about having a nice and orderly system each year according to recent results. This year we´d have Hamilton with Bottas 1 and 2, Verstappen would carry number 5, McLaren would be starting with 11 and 12. Danny Ric with no. 8 and so on.

    1. Danny Ric would have number 7, because he, technically, is the first driver in the team.

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