Tag Archives: F1

Lewis Hamilton has made it clear that he wants to stay at Mercedes for the long term, and says that the team knows that he would like to extend his current contract past its end date of 2015.

Meanwhile the transfer market has kicked into gear with suggestions that Mercedes has sounded out Sebastian Vettel about a seat – which presumably means that Stuttgart can see the four-time World Champion alongside fellow countryman Nico Rosberg in 2016 or beyond, given that Rosberg has already extended his contract.

It’s obvious that any such talk will probably unsettle Hamilton, unless of course he already has a pretty good idea that he might want to go to McLaren-Honda or another top team.

“I’m not worried about it,” said Hamilton when asked about Vettel. “Another German driver, I’m not sure that’s something that Mercedes would like. At the moment I’m hear to the end of next year, so it’s not going to be any time soon. But that’s normal, Mercedes is the best, so everyone is going to want to drive a Mercedes.”

Regarding talks on the future he said: “We haven’t sat down yet, but the team know that I would really like to push to continue. They’ve made it clear that they would like to do the same.

“I’ve been with Mercedes since I was 13, so I very much feel like I have Mercedes imprinted on my chest. It’s very much family for me. You never know what’s going to happen in the future, but I can’t see myself anywhere else. If they happen to want someone else, if that’s the way it is, I’m not going to whinge about it. There’s places for everyone.”

Lewis Hamilton won’t be forced to start from the pitlane after the FIA accepted that his change of brake disc brand from Brembo to Carbon Industrie does not represent a change of car specification under parc ferme conditions.

Article 34.2 of the 2014 Sporting Regulations states: “It must be clear that any replacement part a team wishes to fit is similar in mass, inertia and function to the original. Any parts removed will be retained by the FIA.”

FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer has apparently accepted that the Carbon Industrie discs are a suitable replacement for the Brembos.

However Hamilton has changed his gearbox after the accident and a five place penalty drops him from 15th to 20th.

Lewis Hamilton is likely to start the German GP from the pitlane as Mercedes plans to switch him from Brembo to Carbon Industrie discs for the race.

That would be a change of car specification under parc ferme conditions, and a loss of grid position is the automatic result.

An optimistic Toto Wolff says that Mercedes hopes that the FIA will regard the change of supplier as a safety issue, but rivals insist that there is no chance of any leniency, and that it’s a straightforward case of a change of specification.

It’s worth remembering that when RBR had a tyre issue at Spa the team was not allowed to change cambers overnight on safety grounds.

“I don’t think we will be running the same brake material tomorrow because there is no way you can analyse what happened and how to prevent it in the future within 12 hours,” said Wolff. “So the latest information is that we will switch the brake material.”

Regarding the penalty, he said: “I’m not sure that this is totally clarified. We have had a brake failure, which means that we are obliged to make sure that the car is running safe tomorrow. What that could mean is switching the brake supplier. Whether that has to result in starting from the pitlane, we are discussing that with the FIA. I would even go further, obviously many teams are running that brake material, so that safety discussion probably needs to be extended.”

However other teams using Brembo told this writer they do not believe that they face any issues here, although there have been disc failures this year. Teams using Brembo include Ferrari, RBR, Sauber. Force India, Toro Rosso and Marussia.

Regarding Hamilton’s preference for Brembo he said: “Brembo had a failure earlier in the year, and they have upgraded the discs to what supposedly is the safest disc. They have put a lot of research into the carbon disc, so there was no gamble whatsoever, it was just a matter of what suits your driving style more. Both of them have been trying both brake materials almost every weekend.”

Lewis Hamilton will start the German GP from a lowly 15th after he suffered a front right brake disc failure in Q1 and spun heavily into the tyre wall.

Hamilton did not take part in Q2 and was thus officially 16th, but he gained a place from an Esteban Gutierrez grid penalty.

Out of choice Hamilton uses Brembo discs while Nico Rosberg uses Carbon Industrie – it’s not uncommon for drivers to swap around as they search for better ‘feel’ – so the German does not have an issue. The broken disc was new today and the team has no explanation for the failure, although the likelihood is that it was a one-off manufacturing fault.

Hamilton could in theory switch brands for the race – but it would be a change of car spec, and he would have to start from the pit lane.

“It happens so quickly,” said Hamilton. “And the thing is when you’re driving you have to have 110% confidence in the car, and you never, ever enter a corner thinking something’s going to happen. So you hit it [the brake pedal] and it’s a real shock. We’ll figure something out. There’s still a decent amount of races to go. Obviously Nico’s got another gift but we’ll do what we can.

“I can’t believe it, but obviously things like this happen, things are for whatever reason sent to try us. The guys worked hard over the evening, really late last night. We’ve done such a great job with the set-up, it felt fantastic out there, and I didn’t even get to do five laps. It’s nothing really to do with the guys. They’re supposed to have gone through lots of tests with the brakes, which they did. Just a bit unfortunate.”