TURNING POINT
Is this the beginning of the end for Lewis?
LEWIS HAMILTON hid his eyes beneath the peak of his cap and scratched at the skin of his hand and flicked away the pickings across the table.
The world champion did not want t o show us how he f elt after qualifying second quickest for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but he could not hide his emotions from the scrutiny of the room in Baku’s Hilton hotel.
The context was not so much that Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari had beaten him to pole by 0.179sec, but Bernie Ecclestone’s comments the day before that Hamilton, aged 33, is a shadow of the phenomenon whose zeal lit up the race tracks of the world.
‘ He might be worn out by all the travel,’ the sport’s chairman emeritus said. ‘Maybe he is a little tired by the whole thing. He is still super talented, super quick, I like him, but, when you talk to Lewis and see the way he acts, he’s not the racer he was.’
Those sentiments were put to Hamilton. He said he did not wish to respond. Pressed on whether he believed he was as good and keen as ever, Hamilton said: ‘We will see at the end of the year.’
He spoke the line equivocally. It did not sound like an ‘I’ll prove-himwrong’ promise. Moments later, Vettel was asked to ponder broadly how the toll of a long career in motor racing can throttle enthusiasm for the task. It was at this point that Hamilton hid himself beneath the black cap with the white outline of the Mercedes arrow on it. When he spoke again, his voice was a few notes higher, the tone papery.
In t hose seconds, t he multimillionaire star suddenly looked as vulnerable as the little kid karter who a s k e d f o r Ron Dennis ’s autograph all those years ago. The door of the golden cage of wealth was open and we were all peering i nside. The t ypically resilient Hamilton, who has bounced back from every setback that has beset him on his rarely quiet trip through the sport, may yet rally as early as today i n Baku and thus end a winless spell stretching back to Austin last October.
He will almost certainly win somewhere even if it is not here. He will probably sign a new Mercedes contract beyond t he deal t hat expires at the end of the season.
But if — and it remains a big if — he should walk away from the sport, then the vignette in the glassf r onted Hilt on will mark t he moment we saw what was coming. Whatever the upshot, Ecclestone’s insight is fair c o mment on Hamilton’s fragility right now. The 87-year-old has no malice towards his fellow Brit — indeed he called him the best world champion the sport had ever known.
And as for Ecclestone’s judgment, he sat at the feet of Enzo Ferrari, and that was the greatest schooling imaginable, so you cannot say he does not know what he is talking about.
Before qualifying, Hamilton put up a curious message on hi s Instagram account, saying: ‘I shy away from cameras. I have never been super comfortable in front of them, but I woke up this morning wanting to grow and change that and try to communicate better with you, with my friends and family.
‘So much gets lost in translation and I refuse to believe that it’s just how it is. Anyway, I am wishing you all an amazing weekend wherever you are in the world. Shine bright and live your best life! God Bless. Lewis.’ What does it all mean? Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff could offer no elucidation, s ayi ng he had not s poken to Hamil t o n a b o u t Ec c l e s t o n e ’s comments and the nerves they appeared to have touched.
At least Mercedes found some of t he pace t hat was missing in Shanghai a fortnight ago. Valtteri Bottas, in the other Mercedes, third fastest.
It was yet another bad Saturday for McLaren. Stoffel Vandoorne did not make it out of the first session, setting only the 16th fastest time. Fernando Alonso was 13th. McLaren have dispensed with senior engineer Tim Goss already this week and more changes could follow.
No wonder racing director Eric Boullier was disconsolate at lunch in the McLaren hospitality area, fearing the non-performance that followed. He cannot be sure how many more lunches there will be.