Adam Cooper F1

Lewis Hamilton is adamant that he has moved on from his Monaco disappointment, and perhaps not surprisingly the World Champion was not keen to talk about the last race when quizzed by the media today.

“First of all, I don’t look back,” he said. “I’m looking forwards. 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.”

Pressed further, he added: “There’s going to be a lot of questions about Monaco. 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. I’m literally thinking about this race, I’m excited, I feel good, I feel fit, I feel strong, so all positives.”

Pressed on why he stopped on track after the chequered flag – with many observers suspecting that he was thinking about abandoning the car and heading home – he said: “There is no answer to it.”

Hamilton insisted that there was no damage to the relationship he has with his team.

“I have full trust and confidence in the team. We’ve won, we’ve had pretty incredible successful together. One race doesn’t dent the solid foundation that we’ve got.”

Force India team principal Vijay Mallya has expressed his opposition to customer cars – and says there are still many questions to be answered about how the concept would work.

Mallya says that the cost issue is unclear, and that it would be impossible for a customer car to be as competitive as a works machine.

“I have never supported the concept of customer cars,” Mallya told this writer. “If the big four who control the majority of the Strategy Group are going to virtually drive out the small independent teams and then fill up the grid with their own customer cars it remains to be seen how attractive it will be to the audience, what the costs will actually turn out to be, and more importantly how can a customer car be as competitive as a constructor’s car? What about upgrades? What about the time lag in delivering upgrades to the customer?

“There are so many pending issues which people don’t seem to examine in detail. There’s just one sweeping statement, ‘customer cars,’ with a view to perhaps answering the inevitable question, which is if the small teams disappear, how do you fill the grid?”

Meanwhile Mallya is adamant that the Strategy Group is not working, and says that the big teams are simply looking after their own interets.

“The Strategy Group is nothing but the four big teams deciding the way that the sport has to move forward. And everybody is protective of their own corner, their own interest, and that’s it. One has to just learn to live with this situation, however unacceptable or impractical it may be.

“There are meetings that don’t produce any results, no cost cutting measures, nothing that will really seriously address the sustainability of F1. So until the big four teams take responsibility for the sport as a whole, as long as they continue to guard their own corners, nothing’s going to happen.”

Ferrari and Honda have both dipped into their allocation of power unit upgrade tokens in the build-up to the Canadian GP, becoming the first manufacturers to take advantage of the loophole in this year’s rules that allowed for some development during the season.

Ferrari has used three of its tokens, and Honda two. However it doesn’t necessarily mean that the upgraded engines will definitely be deployed in Montreal, although the Japanese manufacturer has indicated that they will be.

A Technical Directive from the FIA’s Charlie Whiting to the teams today said: “Further to our note on 13 March (TD/008-15) I can confirm that, in preparation for the Canadian Grand Prix, two power unit manufacturers have used some of their allocated ‘tokens’.

“As a consequence, and in accordance with Appendix 4 of the F1 Technical Regulations, each manufacturer now has the following number of ‘tokens’ available for use during the 2015 season.

“Mercedes 7

“Ferrari 7 (3 used)

“Renault 12

“Honda 7 (2 used)”

The tokens are for performance upgrades, and are independent of any modifications for reliability purposes that are allowed by the FIA without use of tokens.

Red Bull’s Helmut Marko has praised Max Verstappen’s performance in Monaco, and says that Romain Grosjean was also at fault in the collision that ended the Dutchman’s race.

Monaco rookie Verstappen was badly delayed by a long pit stop, but he was still able to show real savvy and aggression with some good passing moves before the controversial incident with Grosjean earned a grid penalty for Canada.

“Max was fantastic,” Marko told this writer. “Unfortunately he had this bad pit stop. It was good when he followed the Ferrari [of Sebastian Vettel] and overtook Bottas. You saw what potential is there.

“I would say the crash was a racing incident, and Grosjean was involved as well, he was moving over when he already saw that Max was there.”

Marko was also pleased to see RBR drivers Dany Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo finish fourth and fifth, especially after such a frustrating start to the season for the Russian.

“Both drivers did very well. It was a good co-operation for Kvyat to let Ricciardo past, and then he gave it back when he couldn’t get by. I think Ricciardo would have needed two more laps and there was a chance on Hamilton.

“It was the first weekend without any troubles for Kvyat, and there he showed what he can do.”