Formula 1's Latest Rumours and Talk: Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, More
Having been beaten by Sebastian Vettel at the Malaysian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton has insisted that he welcomes the challenge to his dominant Mercedes team.
The reigning world champion said this week that it's "great" Ferrari have made so much progress. Whether he'll say the same if they win again in China is another matter.
Vettel took the glory at Sepang, but another driver well worthy of praise for his performance is Max Verstappen. The 17-year-old Dutch rookie finished an excellent seventh, and his Toro Rosso team boss, Franz Tost, hopes his driving has silenced the "stupid" critics who said he wasn't ready.
Elsewhere, Williams are understandably concerned by Ferrari's pace, Red Bull and Renault have called something of a truce as they bid to get their season back on track and Pierre Gasly will make his F1 testing debut for Toro Rosso in May.
Read on for a full roundup of the top stories from the last few days.
Franz Tost Feels Max Verstappen Has Silenced His Critics
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Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost feels Max Verstappen has proved his critics wrong with his performances in the opening two races of the year.
The 17-year-old retired from a strong position in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix and followed it up with a brilliant drive to seventh in Malaysia. Verstappen had qualified sixth at a wet Sepang and went on to become the youngest points-scoring driver in F1 history.
Speaking to Autosport about Verstappen, Tost said: "I said this in October and November when all the people criticised, he will answer them on the racetrack because the answer on the racetrack means stupid people can understand."
He went on to include Carlos Sainz Jr. in the discussion:
"I'm more than happy with both of the drivers. Both of them have done a fantastic job without any mistakes. They are open-minded and they want to learn until late at night.
They want to see what is going on, what's being changed on the car and this understanding helps them perform well. They are also very high-skilled drivers.
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Critics of Verstappen's promotion to the top level at such a young age included FIA President Jean Todt and outspoken 1997 champion Jacques Villeneuve. Speaking to Omnicorse (h/t GP Today), the Canadian even went so far as to brand Verstappen's presence in the sport "an insult."
Per Motorsport.com, even fellow drivers Daniil Kvyat and Felipe Massa were uncertain he was old enough.
But Verstappen has not looked out of place so far and given us no cause for concern. His on-track behaviour has been as professional as that of a veteran. On the evidence of his first two races, he appears to have sufficient talent to be in F1 on merit.
Indeed, the only question his success has raised relates to the sport itself. If a 17-year-old with only one season of car racing behind him—no matter how exceptional—can make the step up so easily, are F1 cars difficult enough to drive?
Lewis Hamilton Pleased to Have Ferraris at the Front
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Lewis Hamilton feels the gains Ferrari have made since 2014 are down to both the engine and the chassis—and he is pleased to have some competition.
Speaking after being beaten into second at the Malaysian Grand Prix by Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, Hamilton said (h/t Autosport):
"It's great to see Ferrari making such a big step and it is with both the car and the engine. A lot of people talk about engines being fast but ultimately it's the car and the downforce which can make just as big a difference.
We have to give it to them, they did a fantastic job. We were not, and I was not, expecting them to be as quick as they were. They did an amazing job and had some good pace.
We knew that they had made a step, we didn't know how big but they were too fast for us.
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Hamilton's comment that it is "great" to see that Ferrari have improved may sound odd, but there's a good reason for the world champion to be happy.
Last season proved how a fight between team-mates in dominant cars, even when one driver performs significantly better, can come down to reliability and luck. Despite having won 10 races to Nico Rosberg's five, Hamilton only had a 17-point lead going into the final race.
But if another team can get their cars in the mix at certain tracks, they're more likely to take points away from the weaker driver at the dominant team. In the case of Mercedes, that's Rosberg. Hamilton should benefit.
At least, that's the theory. Maybe 2015 will show us whether it also works that way in the real world.
Red Bull and Renault Agree to Uneasy Truce
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Like a warring couple having one last shot at turning their relationship around, Red Bull and Renault have agreed to work together to solve their problems.
The Austrian team and their French engine supplier appeared to be close to conflict following the Australian Grand Prix. After seeing his team outperformed by Mercedes, Ferrari, Williams and Sauber, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner complained that Renault had taken a backward step.
Per the Daily Mail, chief technical officer Adrian Newey also weighed in, saying there seemed to be "no light at the end of the tunnel."
Renault boss Cyril Abiteboul hit back, and later posted a combative tweet to reinforce his message.
However, Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko says that, for now at least, the two will try to work together. He told Austria's Servus TV (h/t grandprix.com):
"All of this criticism was due to emotions that were all quite understandable. In fact, perhaps the comments themselves were not even so hard, but the translation of Cyril's words from French made it sound very harsh.
We have met and decided on how we will work during the remainder of the season.
We do not have to love each other, but we do need an engine that works. Under the current regulations it is impossible to close the gap to the leaders, but in the past we got used to winning even though our engines were not the most powerful.
At the same time, we can all see what Ferrari has managed to do. According to Renault engineers, we will reach this level by the end of the year and once again be able to fight at the top. It was decided to postpone the debate and focus on working together to get us out of this situation.
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The performance of Toro Rosso in Malaysia, where both the junior team's drivers finished ahead of the main team's, suggests both Renault and Red Bull are responsible for the RB11's lack of competitiveness.
For a team as used to winning as Red Bull were before 2014, with a designer of Newey's calibre, that's probably not easy to take.
But Renault got used to winning as well and deserve as much credit for the good times as the team they supplied. Catching Mercedes this year is out of the question, but if they work together, the partnership should be capable of challenging for podiums by the end of the season.
If not, the divorce lawyers await.
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Pierre Gasly to Make Formula 1 Testing Debut for Toro Rosso in May
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Pierre Gasly will continue his journey up the motorsport ladder when he tests for Toro Rosso in May.
He will drive the STR10 at the in-season test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya following the Spanish Grand Prix—his first taste of F1 machinery.
Gasly is the latest in a long line of promising youngsters to emerge through the Red Bull Junior Team. Having won the 2013 Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 championship, the Frenchman finished second in the 2014 FR3.5 series.
He also entered six GP2 races, failing to score but impressing in the final feature race of the year.
The 19-year-old will drive a full GP2 season with the front-running DAMS team in 2015. Gasly will partner former Red Bull junior Alex Lynn—both will start the year among the title favourites.
Williams Worried over Early Ferrari Gap
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Williams finished fifth and sixth in Malaysia, comfortably clear of the cars behind. However, lead driver Valtteri Bottas was a staggering one minute and 10.409 seconds down on race winner Sebastian Vettel.
The size of the gap has, unsurprisingly, given the team cause for concern. Speaking after the race, head of vehicle performance Rob Smedley said (h/t Chris Medland of f1i.com):
"Yeah, of course I’m concerned. To be 60 seconds down at the end of the race, absolutely it’s a concern. It would be remiss of me to say I wasn’t concerned about that.
But there’s certain bits of it, like the fact that Sebastian could do one less stop than us has certainly helped in that minute, so that’s where we need to start concentrating. At the same time we need to develop the car package from front to back, you need to keep pushing on with that.
It’s a concern—if anyone is in front it’s a concern, no matter what colour their car is. We just have to keep pushing on and make sure we’re developing at a faster rate than them. If we do that, we close a gap, it’s that simple.
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Bottas, who recovered from a poor start to overtake team-mate Felipe Massa on the penultimate lap, was also disappointed. He said after the race (h/t crash.net):
"In an ideal race, starting at the front, it wouldn't be that big, but it is still much bigger than we expected. It shows that we have a lot of work to do and there is much more potential, we need to get more power from us. We will have some updates coming and all we can now learn from anything we can, to just keep pushing to the maximum.
This is extreme conditions and Ferrari seem better than anyone with the tyre degradation, so we will see in China, but I think they are in front of us. We need to keep working hard if we want to challenge them.
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Coming out of pre-season testing, Williams looked set for a season spent in close proximity to Ferrari. Red Bull also looked like they'd be joining in this battle to be best of the rest behind Mercedes, but things haven't shaken out as expected.
It would be reasonable to suspect Ferrari's Malaysia pace will be difficult to reproduce elsewhere—they won't be as quick as Mercedes at the majority of circuits.
But at the moment, they look well clear of the chasing pack.
The only consolation for Williams is that they look light years ahead of Red Bull.
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