Hamilton shrugs off event no- show ahead of British GP
Lewis Hamilton defended his decision to snub a major Formula One promotional event in London and said the British Grand Prix and his title challenge came first.
The Briton, who will be chasing a fourth successive home win at Silverstone on Monday, was the only driver to miss the F1 Live event on Thursday.
Instead, the triple world champion was holidaying with friends in Greece.
“It’s been a pretty intense season so far and I felt I needed to prepare the best way I could for this weekend,” Hamilton said.
“The season’s the most important thing for me. That’s really it,” added Hamilton, who said he was unaware of any negative reaction from fans, some of whom had booed his name at the event.
“I love this Grand Prix. I don’t think yesterday plays any role in how great this weekend is for me.”
Hamilton can join the late Jim Clark as a five- time winner of the British Grand Prix and he left no doubt about how important the race was for him regardless of the championship standings.
The 32- year- old is 20 points behind Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel after nine of 20 races and comes back to Silverstone after being off the podium for two races in a row — the first time that has happened since 2014.
He said he was relaxed and excited for the weekend.
“You’ve got the championship, which is obviously the most important thing, and a very close second if not tied is the British Grand Prix,” he declared.
“Being a home grand prix, the home of motorsport, it’s such an incredible intense weekend, every year it’s a must- win for a British driver.”
Hamilton dismissed a suggestion that his absence had something to do with image rights and also gave short shrift to a suggestion that staying in Britain might have been better preparation than hours of flying.
Australian Daniel Ricciardo, meanwhile, believes the Silverstone track boosts his chances of extending his career- best streak to six straight podium finishes.
With his Red Bull team reportedly bringing more car upgrades to England ahead of a major change for the Hungarian Grand Prix, Ricciardo was feeling positive.
“It’s never a given but I definitely feel we should be in with a shot on a track that suits us,” the 28- year- old said.
“It’s a high- speed circuit with a lot of fast corners and aerodynamically our car is getting really good now.
“And that’s really motivating for us.”
Ricciardo’s run of podiums started at the Spanish Grand Prix in May and has continued through Monaco, Canada, Azerbaijan, where he won, and Austria, putting him fourth in the driver standings on 107 points behind Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel ( 171) and Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton ( 151) and Valteri Bottas ( 136).
He is excited to see how the faster 2017 F1 cars handle going flat- out through some of those fast corners at Silverstone.
“It’s going to be fun. I love high- speed corners,” he said. “From turn nine to 15, Copse to Stowe, it’s some of the coolest sequences; probably ( the best) mile of race track we go on all year.”
Fast corners are fun for Ricciardo but moreso in an increasingly competitive car and he feels the new Red Bull upgrades are coming at the right time. “We’ve got more coming later,” Ricciardo said of the new changes before adding “but yeah, it’s a high downforce package.”
That high level of downforce will be crucial at Silverstone and then in Budapest where it is expected to be fully unleashed.
“We’re definitely closer now ( to Ferrari and Mercedes) and there are some circuits that will suit us more than others,” he said.
“We have Budapest in a couple of weeks which is more cardependent than enginedependent and we should be really on pace and the car will set up to get to a level of Ferrari and Mercedes.”