Lewis Hamilton Wants More Excitement

Hamilton Congratulates Vettel to Pole

Even for Lewis Hamilton, it has become too boring after six consecutive Mercedes victories – at least it appears that way. The Briton wants more competition from their closest rival – Ferrari!

“I hope this is a watershed moment for them,” Hamilton commented over Sebastian Vettel‘s pole position in Canada,

“I’d like it to get closer now and that we will have some real fights. That would be fantastic.”

Hamilton was in front the whole time and on pole positions, until according to Hamilton own words, Vettel “killed” it on the very last straight.

Even though Mercedes brought a new engine upgrade to Canada, Ferrari installed a new turbo and two new electric motors. Thus, the Scuderia won up to four to six-tenths of a second on the straights.

Hamilton Concerned about Current F1

Lewis Hamilton is worried about the current state of Formula 1! He is anything but enthusiastic about the current cars, and the new rules. And he believes that the fans think the same way.

The target of his criticism: the current hybrid turbo engines:

“If I had the choice, then I would go back to the V12 engines, plus a manual transmission,” Hamilton recently commented. For him it is clear, the Formula 1 must be harder for drivers again. He demands:

“Take away the big run-off zones and the power steering, you should be physically exhausted after a race, it should be as exhausting as a marathon.”

“We also need better tires,” says Hamilton, criticizing the gentle driving style necessary to conserve tires over the distance.

Not all agree with Hamilton, including his own boss Toto Wolff. At press conference Wolff contradicted his champion:

“In a way, we’re all dinosaurs because we like the sound of the V12 and the old cars,” admitted Wolff. But the times of V12 and manual transmission are long gone. The Austrian:

“We have evolved since then, everything is sustainable and CO2-neutral. The younger generation is just not so interested in the old V12 engines.”

Formula 1 has much to offer, namely the most efficient engines of all time:

“Technology has turned the cars into fantastic high-tech machines, and this high-tech is being utilized for normal road cars. You can’t turn back time.”

Does he see no chance for a retro-comeback? Wolff straight:

“We over-nostalgic of the past.”

*This article was first published in German at autobild.de/motorsport.