Lewis Hamilton says he’s not to blame for making F1 boring this season
LEWIS HAMILTON says he’s not to blame for making Formula One boring this season.
The reigning world champion recorded his third win of the season at the Spanish GP while his Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas, has won the other two races in 2019.
The Brackley-based team have made a record-breaking start to the campaign with five back-to-back one-two finishes.
Incredibly, they have taken 98.6 percent of the points available to them for wins and fastest laps this season.
But Hamilton, who now leads the drivers’ world championship from Bottas, says he is not responsible for the sport’s predictability as Ferrari and Red Bull struggle to match the Silver Arrows.
He said: “People watching might be unhappy with the gap we have over Ferrari but we want to be as quick as we can be.
“We don’t know why the others have fallen off a little bit but nonetheless our weekends are no different.
“We have to still push so hard to the limit. It is not like we go into the race with a margin and back off, it is peddle to the metal.
It is definitely a lot less exciting and not how F1 should be, but it is not our fault our guys are good at their jobs.
Hamilton the state of F1 this season
“Valtteri was pushing all the way in Spain, so I still have to deliver like I have a Ferrari behind me and that’s over 66 laps, which is not easy.
“But it is not as much fun as when you are competing against another team. That is was F1 is about.
“When you arrive and you are competing against other teams who are bringing their A-game and you have another two drivers and that puts a spanner in the mix.
“When that is not there, it is definitely a lot less exciting and not how F1 should be, but it is what it is right now and it is not our fault our guys are good at their jobs.”
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says he understands the frustration at seeing his team dominate the sport to new levels beyond what McLaren did in the 1980s, Ferrari in the 1990s and Red Bull managed between 2010 and 2013.
And he too admits seeing different winners would help make the sport exciting again.
BAD KARMA
He added: “I’m in a pretty clear position, because we’re really trying to perform as well as we can.
“We pushed the benchmark and we push the needle and we try to be better as a group every single day and every single year.
“Then on the other side, if I take myself out from my Mercedes standpoint and all of the group, of course as a fan you want variability and unpredictability.
“We all enjoyed Liverpool coming back as strong as they did and Spurs making it against all odds.
“As a fan and as a spectator, I can relate to the sport needing to have a certain variability. But where we are, it can’t be an objective for us.
“I also feel that it’s bad karma if we were to really think that we are walking on water – then next weekend you’re going to get one in the face for sure.”
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There is now talk whether Mercedes can do the unthinkable and win all 21 races, and despite admitting it unlikely, Hamilton has also refused to rule it out.
He said: “Who knows? We definitely did not expect to come in to the season winning the first five races, which is incredibly encouraging for everyone.
“Everyone is still pushing incredibly hard, which is still so great to see. It really is a phenomenal group of people. In the engineers’ room, nobody is over confident.
“We were discussing improvements we could make and talking about how we could improve the car. They don’t mind constructive criticism.
“They don’t take it personally. I think this is the strongest team there is and has ever been and it would be hard to break that.”
