In an interview with ESPN F1 on Monday, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has stated that he “needed” his victory at the British Grand Prix to help bolster his self-belief at this stage of the championship. Hamilton won on home soil while his team-mate and rival for the title, Nico Rosberg, retired with a gearbox problem. The 25 points has now drawn Hamilton within four points of Rosberg.
In his interview with ESPN, Hamilton said he gained no pleasure from seeing his team-mate retire but that the victory was necessary to help his mental approach for the rest of the season. Hamilton stated the following:-
‘I don’t really feel anything for the [Rosberg] retirement. I thought I’d be here saying, ‘finally!’ but I don’t feel that way, I was really looking forward to racing him. In the race I thought ‘that really sucks’ because that’s what the fans need to see.
‘It’s the first time this year that I had the different strategy, he was going option [medium], option [medium], prime [hard] and I was going option, prime, option, and if I did a good enough job on the prime – as he has done in previous races – I could have attacked him on the option. That’s what I was looking forward to, but I’ll take it as it has come. Today is more [about] just solidifying belief in myself, and that recovery … I needed it, I needed it.’
I think many pundits and fans would agree with what Hamilton has stated in his interview. Hamilton really did need this victory at Silverstone in order to demonstrate that he can still take the challenge to Rosberg and keep himself in the hunt for the
championship. And Hamilton achieved that with a great performance, despite making a mistake in Qualifying that saw him hand Pole Position to Rosberg.
In regards to what Hamilton has stated about Rosberg and his retirement from the race, his attitude towards is the correct way to approach it. Even though you wouldn’t argue with him saying ‘yes’ in his head when he saw that his team mate couldn’t finish the race, it is not right for the Mercedes team nor their fans to see him react like that.
Even though Hamilton and Rosberg are battling each other for the championship, there is still the Constructors Championship to think about. At the end of the day, if Rosberg finished the race, Mercedes would have extended even more their advantage over their rivals. But they still have extended their advantage with Hamilton’s win yesterday despite this, but they will be looking into how to improve their small reliability issues in order to keep their advantage throughout the rest of the season ahead.
However, Hamilton who started from sixth on the grid believes that he would have had a very good chance of winning had Rosberg not had his issue. Hamilton said the following:-
‘I feel confident I would have been on his tail and with the different tyre strategy there is at least half a second between the medium and the hard, and in the previous races you’ve seen him on my tail because he’s had the softer tyre. Today would have been the same and I’m pretty good when it comes to attacking, so I do feel confident I would have been on his tail.’
There is no question that Hamilton after his pit stop chose the correct tyre and demonstrated that he was able to catch Rosberg at a pace that would have seen in my opinion a battle for the lead once again towards the end of the Grand Prix. And if this would have happened, there is no denying that both drivers would have done everything possible to race for position fair and square; while respecting each other and the track limits.
Further on in his interview, the British GP win came after Hamilton threw away a shot at pole position at Silverstone by failing to complete his final qualifying lap in the belief that the track was not getting faster; a mistake he promised not to make again. He also stated that he will be looking to learn from his mistakes. Hamilton added the following:-
‘I’ll learn from that so it doesn’t matter if it’s raining or whatever, I’ll make sure I push to the end. I’ve been racing long enough to know that but sometimes you make mistakes you knew the solution to.
‘I’ve had two and he’s had one – that’s not really the same. However, I hope that we rectify our faults and we don’t have any more issues on either car through the rest of the year. It’s going to be very close and I don’t take Saturday lightly at all. I need to really analyse things over these next couple of weeks and try to figure out how I can optimise and utilise my speed and ability.’
As Hamilton states himself, that is all he can do. Hamilton now needs to work individually and collectively with the Mercedes team by analysing the data and his
performance over the weekend (especially in qualifying) to see if he can make any improvements in order to extract the best performances possible.
I do believe that if anyone can gain from his mistakes, it is Hamilton. I will state that he has behaved professionally this weekend and has shown that he has the courage to accept responsibility for any mistakes or decisions he makes and that to me is the mark of a great racing driver and world champion.
I would have to agree with Hamilton and I do believe that even though he has suffered one more retirement than Rosberg, it will still be a very close contest between both of them for the rest of the season. I rate both Hamilton and Rosberg very highly and I feel that this championship fight could go down to the wire at the final race in Abu Dhabi, unless something major happens along the way that affects their chances of one of them taking the title (which I do not believe will happen).
There is no question that Rosberg and most importantly Hamilton will be looking to improve in all the areas that they feel they are currently lacking in and will want to demonstrate to their team, themselves and more importantly each other that they have what it takes to win the championship.
At the British Grand Prix, we saw Hamilton beating Rosberg and securing a victory that served as a reminder not to discount him from challenging for the championship until it’s no longer possible for him to achieve it and it is a fight that Hamilton will reveal in and will want to win in the best manner that he possibly can.
Question is; who will be leading the championship fight as Formula One heads to Hockenheim, will it be Hamilton or will it be Rosberg? We will have to see what happens in two weeks time in Germany!
