Martin Brundle ON THE F1 GRID

The TV presenter and ex-formula 1 racer sat down with Nigel Roebuck to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the current driving talent

As we ready ourselves for the 2018 Formula 1 season, I talked through last year with Martin Brundle, as ever over lunch at a favourite Italian restaurant in Knightsbridge. It was no more than inevitable, I suppose, that we started with Lewis Hamilton, world champion for the fourth time.

The time-honoured theory, I said, has been that drivers give of their best when pressured by a team-mate, but in fact both Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel seem rather to disprove it: with Valtteri Bottas, rather than

Nico Rosberg, in the other Mercedes, Lewis thrived like never before, while Sebastian clearly flourishes with Kimi Raikkonen, rather than Daniel Ricciardo, alongside him.

“Yes, it’s true,” said Brundle, “and although harmony’s obviously a good thing in many ways, I find it interesting that Toto Wolff’s now saying he thinks there needs to be a bit more friction at Mercedes! When they had that with Hamilton and Rosberg, they didn’t seem to appreciate it.”

Perhaps, I suggested, it was only in 2017, after his retirement, that we began to appreciate just how good Nico had been. Not only did he quite often beat Lewis, but also very clearly managed to get under his skin. By contrast, the presence of Valtteri seemed to bring out the best in his team-mate.

“Apparently it did,” Brundle said, “and I also sensed, after the summer break, that Lewis came back, and said, ‘I’d better take this a bit more seriously – otherwise I’m going to lose it’. He just took off – I thought his pole lap at Suzuka, for example, was just incredible – and when that happened, Bottas’s head dropped, because he couldn’t figure out what was going on.”

And perhaps also because, after the break, he was told that from here on he was supporting Hamilton’s run for the championship…

“Well, personally, I’d have told him that about three or four races in! Actually, that’s a bit unfair – for quite a long period of time Valtteri, mathematically, was still in the hunt, wasn’t he?

“There’s quite a lot about Lewis I still find difficult to work out. When he’s on it, which is most of the time, he’s brilliant, but throughout his career he’s always had inexplicably ‘off’ weekends, and he still does. I can only think that something in his life – outside Formula 1 – just gets to him occasionally.”

Astonishingly, one of those weekends came at Monaco, where Hamilton could get nowhere near Bottas, let alone the Ferraris.

“Yes, I’ll admit I was quite shocked by that. Occasionally Lewis just defaults emotionally from the weekend, doesn’t he? It’s very strange, although I accept there’s a spotlight on these guys, and it’s bloody hard to keep delivering like they’re expected to do.

“Hamilton’s a ‘Marmite’ driver, isn’t he? Loved by many, and loathed by many. He loves to make bold, emotional, statements about life, and certainly he puts it out there, with all the bling, and whatnot, so inevitably he’s going to stir up strong feelings

– but I tell you what, very few drivers can turn on TV sets, and fill grandstand seats. Could Jenson Button, for example? Does Vettel? I mean, they’re struggling to keep the German Grand

Prix going! Ayrton Senna did, and Nigel Mansell and probably Alain Prost – and of course Fernando Alonso single-handedly created an audience in Spain – but there are very few who can do that, and Lewis is one of them.

“He’s got some huge deals coming along – Mercedes are having to change things to accommodate that – and clearly he’s going to be around for a little while yet. At the BRDC lunch he as good as said, ‘I’ll see it through this phase of Formula 1, and then I’ll probably be out by the time they change things for 2021’.”

As and when Hamilton leaves the world of motor racing,

I said, you suspect it will be without a backward glance.

“Yes, absolutely. As I said, he’s building all sorts of commercial deals, but I was struck by something that happened in Abu Dhabi. David Coulthard and I did the launch of the new F1 logo on the podium – it wasn’t my proudest moment, I must say – and we were supposed to hand each driver a hat. Lewis looked at it, then pointed to his Mercedes cap, and said, ‘This is where the money comes from’, and refused to put the hat on. I thought, ‘You’re not right, mate – this is where a lot of the money originally comes from…’

“Lewis is what he is. I don’t even try to talk to him on the grid – I don’t need to be blanked, thank you! – but I know that when we do a Sky feature with him, we’ll get something out of it, compared with Vettel or Bottas or Raikkonen or whomever – how the hell do you get anything juicy out of them? You can’t. So at least Lewis is doing something, whether you like it or not.”

For the fourth year running, he went through a season with essentially one championship rival, the difference being that this time, rather than his team-mate, it was a driver from a rival outfit, Ferrari.

“I thought Bottas might do a bit better than he did, but essentially what we got from him was what I expected,” reckoned Brundle. “Before the season started, I said I thought he’d be all right, he’d win a few races, but he wouldn’t really challenge Lewis – especially not in year one.

“Having said that, I’ve met a lot of drivers who would like that race in Abu Dhabi on their CV – beating Lewis to pole in the same car, and then having him in his mirrors for the whole race. OK, it was F1 2017-style, where unless you make a mistake he ain’t going to pass you, but under pressure he didn’t make a mistake, and undoubtedly that’s one of his strong points. Valtteri did a solid job, but when you hear Lewis going on about how happy he is with him… my alarm bells would be going off at that!”

There were times in 2017, particularly during the first half of the season, when Vettel, rather than Hamilton, looked like the probable world champion, but if Ferrari rather lost the plot in the second half so too did Sebastian.

“He just cannot control his temper, can he? Something like the incident in Baku, where he nudged Lewis during the safety car period, that’s just instinctive, isn’t it?

That’s in your personality.

“Seb might be only 30, but he’s a bit of a grumpy old man, isn’t he? His default mood is to get angry. We’ve seen it so many times now – against Charlie [Whiting], against other drivers – and in a way it cost him the championship. I think what happened at Singapore was a consequence of having Max Verstappen alongside him, and being told by Christian [Horner] that he’d better watch out because Max was on a mission…

“I think Seb was fixated about leading into the first corner,

and on top of that it was wet. What he did was ridiculous, chopping across in front of Max and Kimi – apart from anything else, why would you take a risk like that when your main rival was fifth on the grid?

“The thing about Vettel is that he’s got this sense of entitlement – and it costs him. Remember when he first turned up; bright-eyed, rucksack on his back, looking as if he was fresh out of uni? It all seems like a very long time ago, but still I think he had some outstanding performances in 2017 – his overtakes against the Force Indias in Canada, for example, and his qualifying laps in Mexico, were absolutely breathtaking. Overall I thought he did a good job, but it was bittersweet – here and there he let himself down.

“Although Mercedes were obviously pacing themselves a bit, over the whole season I think

Ferrari had the best car, but you could sense that they had it turned up to 11 most of the time, and later the package just wilted, didn’t it? Mind you, I think if Alonso had been in the Ferrari, he’d have won the championship. They might have found Fernando difficult in some ways, but everyone in the team would have him back in a heartbeat…”

Raikkonen meantime had another typical Kimi season, thereabouts but not there. “Well, although I thought he showed a bit better speed last year, Kimi’s past his sell-by date, isn’t he? Keeping him is a soft option for Ferrari – it keeps Vettel happy, and, as someone pointed out to me, he’s still incredibly popular round the world, and he sells cars, sells merchandise!

“As much as I like Kimi as a bloke, and admire him as a driver, his time’s up, and I would love to see a Ricciardo, or someone like that, in the team. At the same time, of course, Charles Leclerc is waiting in the wings – the kid seems to have it all, doesn’t he?”

It is so typical of Formula 1, I said, that already many people have… not written Ricciardo off, but significantly downgraded him after his 2017 season alongside Verstappen, and that seems a little unfair. How many, after all, would be as out-and-out quick as Max in equal cars – particularly in qualifying?

“Yes,” Martin said, “although Max does go on the ‘missing’ list occasionally – he struggled in Abu Dhabi, for example.

I’d never write Danny Ricc off – his problem is that he’s now seen as number two at Red Bull. For me he’s not a number two driver anywhere.

“Something that’s always impressed me about Danny is his overtakes: look at the one on Raikkonen at Monza – it was outrageous! Same thing at Baku, where he ended up winning. And when I talk to him about these moves, there’s always total logic: ‘Well, I could have gone straight on if I’d got it wrong’, and ‘I thought he’s not going to defend because he won’t be expecting it from this far back…’

The whole thing’s thought through.

“As for Max, he won those races beautifully, didn’t he? Towards the end of the year the Red Bull went off the pace – I think something, like a cunning rideheight thing, got taken off it – but look at Mexico and Malaysia, cruising up, passing Lewis, disappearing – I mean, in Mexico Max was out front, and couldn’t go slowly enough!”

In light of his extraordinary talent, of what he has achieved in such a short time, it would have been easy for Verstappen to become insufferably arrogant, but so far there is no sign of it.

“He’s just a great kid. When I’m talking to him, I need to

have everything together, because he’s as sharp as you like with his answers – it’s almost as if he’s reading your mind. I interviewed him in Brazil, and the heavens opened – the rain was bouncing off the track – and I thought, ‘He’s not going to come out in this’, but to my amazement he did – stood there, did the interview, no problem.”

Like early Vettel…

“Yes, exactly. It’ll be interesting to see if Max changes, but I don’t sense a side to him. For me, Red Bull has the strongest pairing on the grid, but what Danny’s going to get now is what DC had at Mclaren – Ron [Dennis] could only love one driver, and it was Mika Hakkinen. Emotionally, Red Bull are committed to Max, aren’t they? They see him as the future of the team, and Danny’s going to have to suck that up, and fight back.”

Yes, I said, but surely that’s why down the road he can’t stay – just as he was the reason Vettel had to leave at the end of 2014.

“I agree,” said Brundle, “and that means Mercedes or Ferrari, doesn’t it? There’s been a lot of talk about Danny going to Ferrari – although I wouldn’t have thought Seb would be keen on that idea! – but I understand that his first choice would be Mercedes. Is there going to be a vacancy there in 2019 – and if there is, will they go for Esteban Ocon, anyway? Thing is, I’m not aware that Ricciardo’s got a manager – and Toto manages Ocon, doesn’t he?

“There’s another lad really going places. Talk to Eric Boullier about Ocon – about when he was a kid, living in his caravan, rummaging through the bin to get Nyck de Vries’s discarded tyres, because they were better than anything he was going to get… I love all those stories.

“Esteban has humility, and he also clearly has a competitive edge – Jesus Christ! He looks gangly – he doesn’t look like he’ll fit in a racing car – but if there’s nothing to the lad, clearly that’s not a problem. I thought he was outstanding last year, but it must be said that Sergio Perez responded, and beat him in the championship. I know they say he’s lazy, but Checo’s turned into a much better driver than I ever expected.

“He and Ocon took pieces out of each other at Montreal and Baku and Spa, but in a way that’s a nice problem to have, and I thought Force India handled it very well. Everything about that team impresses me – they’ve got nine bob to spend, and it’s amazing what they achieve with it.

“Ocon is very obviously a star of the next generation, together with Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, Leclerc and so on… Lando Norris looks pretty handy for 18, and others will pop up, too.”

What about Stoffel Vandoorne?

“Yes, he’s in there, too. I think Vandoorne might be a slow burner – in the first half of last year he struggled, but in the second half he really did start to show something. Stoffel’s a bright lad, and he’ll get there – let’s remember that’s how

Nico finished up beating Lewis: cerebrally.

“I’ll never understand how the Honda project turned out so badly – you just hope that with the Renault engine Mclaren will be back up there, because it would be fantastic for the sport, and for all the Alonso fans who’ve missed him being up at the front. I thought Fernando was incredible last year. On Friday afternoons I go out on the circuit to watch, and I can always hear him coming – I can tell it’s him before I can see him, because the throttle’s always lit, and the guy turns up, and just carries fantastic speed through a corner…

“Alonso’s motivation is astonishing: he never gives up, even in a hopelessly uncompetitive car, and that’s something I admire enormously. Having said that, every time a Ferrari blasts past him down a straight, he’s not human if he doesn’t think, ‘I should have been in that…’ I know he insists that he has no regrets about any decision he has ever made, but my reply to that is, ‘Well, you should have!’

“Some in the paddock have said Fernando should never have done Indy, but I think that’s bollocks – apart from anything else, it was a masterstroke by Zak Brown, because it took the focus off all the misery at Mclaren and also gave him an opportunity to vent all his speed and energy. I thought he was amazing at Indy – the likes of Gil de Ferran don’t get watery-eyed over much!

“Now he’s done Daytona and is doing Le Mans, whereas Lewis, for example, says, ‘Not for me – I’ve no interest in anything but Formula 1’. Alonso’s a throwback, in some ways, and reminds me of going to races when I was a kid – I’d like it if he raced a Formula 2 car and a Lotus Cortina the same day!

“I really think, though, that Fernando needs someone to help him with decisions, someone stronger than he is – but I’m not sure such a person exists! In a way, I wasted my talent – I didn’t fulfil my potential for a number of reasons – and I see Fernando as that times five, in that he’s allowed his emotions to control where he’s ended up driving, and that’s a terrible shame. He should have four or five championships.”

In recent weeks, Williams have finally confirmed that

Sergey Sirotkin will partner Lance Stroll, and Brundle is a little underwhelmed: “Two pay drivers at Williams! I thought Massa had a great season, and I don’t know who’s going to do a better job there – certainly Stroll drove a great race at

Baku, and apparently thought he was going to trounce Felipe in the second half of the season, but it didn’t happen, did it? I think he’s lost his way.

“Personally, I‘d have put Daniil Kvyat in the Williams. He needs to sort his head out, but I think he’s a lost talent, and I don’t know why they booted him out of Toro Rosso – he’s bloody quick, that boy.

“What’s really sad is that we were all getting our hopes up that Robert Kubica would get the Williams, but testing by yourself on a dry day is one thing – being in a pack of cars on a wet day is something else entirely. Talk to Anthony Davidson, who does a lot of work on the Mercedes simulator, and he says, ‘When they start giving me instructions I need three hands, so how would anyone cope with one and a half?’

“I talked about that to someone at Mercedes, and he said, ‘Yep, that’s right – and, what’s more, our steering-wheel is far more automated than most teams, because we’ve got the budget to do it: many of those changes are done automatically, so I couldn’t see how Kubica was going to cope – with starts, aborted starts, spins…’ It’s a shame.

I feel very sorry for Robert, and for Formula 1 – what a hell of a story that would have been.”