Hamilton insists he will be fighting fit for Canada
LEWIS HAMILTON says he expects to be able to take part in this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix. The 37-year-old struggled to get out of his Mercedes cockpit after he combated back pain in Sunday’s 51-lap Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Hamilton described the race as the most painful of his career, while Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said there was a danger the seven-time world champion might not be fit enough to race at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
But in a social media post, Hamilton, who finished fourth in Baku, appeared to allay Wolff’s fears.
“I’ll be there this weekend,” he said. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
He added: “Yesterday was tough and I had some troubles sleeping but I have woke up feeling positive today. Back is a little sore and bruised but nothing serious thankfully.
“I’ve had acupuncture and physio with Angela [Cullen] and I am on the way to my team to work with them on improving. We have to keep fighting. No time like the present to pull together and we will.”
The problem for Hamilton, Mercedes, and a number of the other teams is the newfor-2022 phenomenon of porpoising which sees the car bouncing on its suspension at high speed. Hamilton’s teammate George Russell called the new generation of F1 cars “dangerous” and a “recipe for disaster”.
But rival team boss Christian Horner has accused Mercedes of exploiting safety concerns as a means to put pressure on the sport’s regulator, the FIA.
Red Bull lead both the drivers’ and constructors’ championship with Max Verstappen heading team-mate
Sergio Perez home in Baku on Sunday to win for a fifth time this season. Verstappen is 21 points clear of Perez in the standings, and 34 points ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
“It is part of the game,” said Horner. “If I was them, I would tell the drivers to bitch as much as they could over the radio and make as big an issue out of it as they possibly could.
“Look, it is uncomfortable but there are remedies. The easiest thing to do is to complain from a safety point of view but each team has a choice.
“If it was a genuine safety concern across the whole grid then it is something that should be looked at, but if it is only affecting isolated people or teams, then that is something that the team should deal with. It would seem unfair to penalise the ones who have done a decent job versus the ones who have missed the target.”
Meanwhile, the Formula One calendar could expand to a record 24 Grands Prix next year with the sport’s bosses closing in on a deal to race in South Africa.
F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali flew from Azerbaijan to meet Kyalami Circuit officials yesterday – and it is understood an agreement could be reached in the coming weeks. The intention is to stage a race as early as 2023.
South Africa last hosted a Grand Prix at Kyalami, 18 miles north of Johannesburg, in 1993 but there has not been an F1 race on the continent since.
Hamilton has been outspoken in his hope of South Africa re-joining the F1 calendar.
Hamilton, 37, said: “The one I really, really want to see is South Africa. That’s the one I want to hear next that gets announced.”