Mercedes promise unflagging intensity
The focus of Formula One is clearly and inevitably firmly fixed on Lewis Hamilton and he returns the compliment by promising to give it his all in pursuit of equalising legend Juan Manuel Fangio’s haul of five titles, and then hanging around the grand prix scene until he overtakes the gifted Michael Schumacher’s tally of seven crowns.
And his all-conquering Mercedes team, headed by master planner Toto Wolff who is poised to ensure that his four times champion will be pocketing at least £1 million a week with a refreshed contract in the championship chase into history, are, they claim, finely honed for the opener of the 21-GP season in Melbourne for the Australian showcase this Sunday.
The Austrian is convinced Hamilton, trimmer and fitter than ever and now 33, will stick around the F1 scene with Mercedes for a good while yet and the great Briton confirms: “More than anything right now, I want to succeed in Melbourne…I will have hit my weight target…I will arrive as fit and as on form as can be.
“I want to see everybody off in practice, I want to get pole position and win as convincingly as possible, As I get older, I am not finding I want to chance less risk. I know a lot of drivers who, say, get to think twice about the dangers. Not me. Not caring about the risks involved in racing for wins and titles is never going to change in me. I love my job. It is dynamic.”
As Hamilton sets his sights on career victory 63 in his 208th GP, Wolff unashamedly hails his hero of a driver: “Lewis is a competitor of exceptional talent and never-failing enthusiasm and eagerness to be a winner, a superb champion, and eventually with the record of being the greatest of all time.” He smiled happily at his star’s pre-season confidence and eagerness to race on with Mercedes as they both took a look at the Aussie circuit ahead of Sunday’s 58-lap, 191.117-mile clash.
“I have a mind re-set every new season,” Hamilton said. “Whatever has happened in the past is irrelevant. That has all gone. It’s history. What is crucial is what is going to happen now. I am comfortable with the team and with Toto. We are committed to one another. I am not interested in going anywhere else. I haven’t spoken to anybody else. We are the best. We are winners.” Is this a mind game he is playing to undermine the aims of 20-year-old Red Bull wonderboy and hot rival Max Verstappen and veteran Vettel, his likeliest and closest rivals? “No way,” is his salvo. “I don’t play those games. I just drive faster. Simple.”
The two oldest drivers on the scene, Spaniard Fernando Alonso, 36, in a revitalised, rejigged and redesigned McLaren — having abandoned the hopeless Honda engine of last year — and gloomy Finn Kimi Raikkonen, 38, on his last season with the Italian team, will be endeavouring to restore their long-gone title-winning style. Two newcomers with excellent pedigrees, Charles Leclerc at Sauber, just 20, and Sergey Sirotkin, 22, at Williams, are all keyed up to advance their chances of being snapped up by a mainline outfit. All in all, the upcoming season looks set to be a value-for-admission-money stormer and could go right down to a memorable grand
finale to treasure in Abu Dhabi in November.