Formula 1's Latest Rumours and Talk: Lewis Hamilton, Engine Upgrades, More
Lewis Hamilton says he has already moved on from the bitter disappointment of losing a certain victory in Monaco. Called in for an unnecessary pit stop after Mercedes miscalculated the gap back to the cars behind, Hamilton looked devastated with third—but it's all behind him now.
The championship leader insists he is now fully focused on the future and securing the best possible result in this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix.
Williams are also looking to bounce back from a tough Monaco, and the long straights of Canada should help them achieve their goal. Red Bull are certainly within their sights; Felipe Massa even has an eye on Ferrari.
Elsewhere, Max Verstappen will not change his driving style despite receiving a five-place grid penalty, Fernando Alonso has likened modern Formula One cars to aeroplanes and two teams have spent a few power unit development tokens ahead of the Montreal weekend.
Read on for a full roundup of the top stories heading into the Canadian Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton Puts Monaco Disappointment Behind Him
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Lewis Hamilton insists he will not dwell on his lost Monaco Grand Prix victory and is fully focused on getting his title bid back on track.
Asked during the official pre-race press conference how he felt after the race in Monte Carlo, Hamilton said:
"First of all, I don’t look back. I’m looking forwards, so honestly I don’t really…I have not thought about the last race for a long time and I've just really been thinking about the next race, putting my mind to other things, training and trying to come back strong this weekend.
So, it’s really irrelevant what happened in the past now. There’s nothing you can do about it so there’s no point dwelling on it.
"
Further questions relating to the race were put to Hamilton throughout the conference as the journalists present pressed for a more detailed answer, but none found the window into his soul. When asked why he had stopped at Portier and whether he could have overruled the team, he responded:
"I’m really not going back to Monaco. I've moved on. I don’t even have to think about it. I’m literally moving on. I couldn't care less about it, I’m literally focused on...I can’t do anything about the past so there’s honestly no point in thinking about it.
It’s about trying to shape the future. I've got lots and lots of races to come, lots of improvements that can be made, I've got a great team, got a great car and there’s a championship to be won so that’s all I’m focused on.
Doesn’t matter what I feel or had felt or feel now because actually I don’t feel anything about it.
"
The reigning champion didn't appear flustered at all despite a couple of slightly provocative questions being aimed in his direction—his mental toughness seems to have moved on a lot from the low points of 2011.
Losing the Monaco win was a significant blow, but Hamilton looks outwardly unaffected and couldn't have chosen a better race to start his fightback.
He has won three times in Canada—no other current driver has triumphed more than once—and Oddschecker shows him as the heavy favourite to add a fourth victory in 2015.
Williams Aiming for Ferraris in Canada
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Williams expect to return to form in Montreal after their dismal display at the Monaco Grand Prix.
Valtteri Bottas was dumped out of qualifying in Q1 and went on to finish well outside the points. Felipe Massa achieved a slightly higher grid slot but he too failed to score.
It was the first pointless weekend for the team since the end of 2013, but Williams remain confident of a strong Canadian showing. Speaking on the team website, Felipe Massa revealed he is targeting a battle with the Ferraris, saying:
"Last year was a good race and we showed strong pace all weekend, but unfortunately for me it didn't end in the best possible way. We know the FW37 is similar and so should be quick at this particular track.
The Montreal circuit is completely different to the last race and we fully expect our performance levels to be back to where they were at the start of the season. We should be able to start getting closer to Ferrari and have a real battle with them and the other teams around us.
"
Valtteri Bottas feels a similar way, and he is quoted by crash.net saying:
"We weren't too bad in qualifying last year so we expect to be competitive here. It depends if the others have improved or not, but if Ferrari hasn't improved and with the fresh engine we have now—engine number two—plus some aero updates, we should be not too far from them.
We are definitely looking to beat Red Bull here. In Spain we were not far off Ferrari in qualifying or the race, so if we can make a small step forward, we should be pretty close.
"
Some sections of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve will definitely suit the Williams—it's very rapid in a straight line and that should be worth a tenth or two every lap relative to certain rivals.
But it didn't look at home around Monaco's tight corners, and Montreal is filled with relatively slow chicanes and turns.
Ferrari's power unit upgrade and better all-round car should see them closer to the Mercedes than the Williams—with the FW37s more likely to occupy fifth and sixth.
Max Verstappen Won't Change His Aggressive Approach to Racing
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Max Verstappen says he will not change his approach to racing despite being hit by a five-place grid penalty for causing a collision with Romain Grosjean in Monaco.
The Dutchman ran into the rear of Grosjean under braking for St. Devote on the 63rd lap, putting himself into the wall and ruining his rival's chances of a points finish.
The stewards placed all blame for the incident on Verstappen's shoulders. However, when asked during the official pre-race press conference what he had learned from the incident, he was unrepentant, saying:
"I learned the cars are pretty strong. I was happy about that, that I didn't have any injuries. I’m happy…I didn't have any problems after that, I went go-karting on Wednesday, so I was fit again.
Yeah, I will have some work to do on this track, but I think it will not change me as a racing driver. I will keep fighting and especially when you want to fight for points, I will still go for it.
"
He later added, when asked if there was anything he would change:
"Not much. I was attacking, I wanted those points, especially after the pit stop we had. I don’t know. Maybe turn a bit earlier to the right, try to avoid it a bit more and maybe try to do it another lap again. I don’t think there were so many things I had to do differently, up until then.
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Verstappen's attacking driving has been one of the highlights of the season so far; he produced a beautiful piece of driving to go around the outside of Daniel Ricciardo in Malaysia, followed it up with three great passes in China and almost single-handedly made (parts of) the Monaco Grand Prix worth watching.
The Grosjean move was a poor one, and the penalty he received was correct. But it's the first punishment he has been given after six aggressively driven grands prix in which he has completed, per Clip the Apex, 13 successful overtaking manoeuvres.
His aggressive style and tough approach to passing is exciting to watch and has served him well so far—long may it continue.
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Fernando Alonso Set to 'Fly' His McLaren in Canada
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Fernando Alonso feels modern F1 cars have become so technologically advanced and reliant on so many systems that driving a grand prix is not dissimilar to flying an aeroplane.
Speaking to Autosport about the challenge of driving in the current era, Alonso revealed:
"You have to control everything in the best and most efficient way, that's your challenge.
It is probably like an aeroplane pilot—they just have to control that everything is working fine. It's now difficult to push the limit because if you push at the limit something will go into a less efficient mode and that will affect the total lap time.
You just need to make sure everything is at 100 per cent, but not yourself.
A lot of communication going on with the team and a lot of steering wheel changes to make sure everything is running efficiently.
Even the lap time, if you lose half a second for five laps because you're not pushing, maybe it's not even a bad idea because your tyres will be perfect condition for the coming laps and you'll gain one second per lap afterwards.
This kind of driving is a little bit strange.
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A modern car is an extraordinarily complex fusion of interconnected systems; the men in the cockpit must double up as both drivers and computer operators.
Tyres, fuel, electrical energy systems, gearbox, turbo, brakes, cooling, temperatures—all must be carefully managed and constantly monitored to ensure optimal race times and strong reliability are achieved.
The driver does this through his steering wheel, altering things like the brake bias, engine modes, battery charging and energy harvesting and deployment on an almost corner-by-corner basis.
His race engineer, fed data on everything the car is doing via sensors all over the car, is always in his ear with advice and instructions on what to do with each setting. The result is messages like this one, sent by Pete Bonnington to Lewis Hamilton during last season's Bahrain Grand prix (h/t F1 Fanatic):
"OK Lewis if you go diff init three. Diff init three. Then we’ve got two HPP switch adjust. So will be HPP-11 to one. HPP-2 to mode one."
Even the expert commentators often struggle to decipher the meaning of such calls.
The hybrid technology itself is a good thing. Not only does it keep F1 on the cutting edge, it also provides a good reason (or handy excuse) for major manufacturers to continue investing time and money in the sport.
But next time the FIA rewrites the rule book, perhaps they should bring in a strict limit on the number of engine modes, harvest settings and things a steering wheel can do...
Ferrari and Honda Upgrade Their Power Units
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Honda and Ferrari have become the first two manufacturers to spend some power unit development tokens and will run their updated engines for the first time over the Canadian Grand Prix weekend.
Ferrari have used three tokens, and ESPN's Laurence Edmondson reports the upgrade is rumoured to be worth around 20 horsepower. If so, the red cars should be a little closer to the silver ones on Montreal's long straights.
However, the official F1 website reports Mercedes have, without spending any tokens at all, found a way to increase their own useful horsepower over long runs.
Honda would love to be able to do the same but their changes, despite being token-worthy, are not expected to bring any major benefit in terms of power.
Fernando Alonso told press in Canada (h/t Reuters), "The engine is exactly the same this weekend compared to Monaco. We did use two tokens of the nine but they are more for reliability reasons or some of the problems we faced recently. So in terms of performance we should be exactly the same."
Ferrari and Honda now have seven tokens remaining to spend this year, the same number as Mercedes. Renault, yet to spend any of their in-season tokens, have 12 left.
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