Lewis Hamilton may not be in the title fight during the 2024 Formula 1 season, but after years of dominance, the Mercedes driver is still one of the first ports of call when media have questions about driver behavior.
That’s what has made Hamilton such a popular figure when it comes time to ask about hard racing between title contenders Lando Norris and Max Verstappen. But as far as the Mercedes driver is concerned, his opinions haven’t changed since Abu Dhabi 2021; all you need to do to understand him is to “listen to some of my radio comments” from the contentious title fight.
Lewis Hamilton: Not “much difference” between stewarding between 2021 and 2024
Aggressive driving between Formula 1’s 2024 title contenders has become the prime talking point during these last few rounds of the championship, with both Lando Norris and Max Verstappen taking penalties that have been perceived as both fair and controversial, depending on the opinions of the person weighing in.
That subject rose again during the press conference for the Brazilian Grand Prix, with media asking Lewis Hamilton to comment on the fierce fight between Norris and Verstappen.
“I think it’s really exciting for the sport, firstly,” he said of the tight battle.
“The last couple years, not necessarily so exciting with Max just leading the way — that sometimes happens. It’s been really exciting for the fans to see that it can go right down to the wire at the end of the year.
“There’s still a possibility of Lando catching up. I read somewhere, I think he’s got to get 11 points more or something in each of these next races, which is definitely possible with the performance they have.”
He also had plenty of kind words to offer about both drivers.
“I mean, we all know Max and his strengths and can’t really say too many weaknesses, if any,” Hamilton said.
“And you’ve got Lando, who’s really risen to the occasion and has been really leading the team.”
However, the Briton initially declined to comment on the way the two men have been racing each other — with Norris’ controversial five-second penalty in Austin, followed by Verstappen’s controversial penalties totaling 20 seconds in Mexico.
“I haven’t really spent too much time looking at how they’re racing and how they’re positioning their cars,” Hamilton admitted.
“Obviously everyone knows of what happened in the last two races. Everyone will have an opinion on it.
“But at the end of the day, those two drivers know what they’re doing. I’m excited to see what happens over these next races, and I’m just hoping that I can at least have a good seat view to watch it all, as they’ll be ahead.”
Hamilton’s reticence in commenting stems from the fact that he feels Mercedes is in “No Man’s Land” in terms of performance — where the team isn’t being seriously challenged from behind, but where it isn’t able to fight hard with the folks out front.
But the Briton made a critical call-back to the controversial 2021 Abu Dhabi season finale in his response to a question during the FIA drivers’ press conference, saying, “The rules are still the same as they were back in 2021, so what we saw in 2021 with myself and Max is still happening today and will continue until perhaps they make a change.”
He added, “Also, the tracks with all the runoff areas don’t help. It it was gravel or grass they wouldn’t be doing that all the way out there. So it’ll be interesting to see the development. Hopefully they’ll make some changes for next year.”
When pressed for more details about his perspective on the Norris v. Verstappen fight, and how that fight has been treated by the stewards, Hamilton instead pointed again to 2021.
“All you have to do is just go look back and listen to some of my radio comments back in the day,” he said.
Abu Dhabi 2021 was controversial in that race director Michael Masi opted to break with convention in staging a last-lap restart where only a portion of the lapped cars were allowed to rejoin the lead lap. The only cars allowed to move out of the way were the cars separating then-leader Lewis Hamilton from Max Verstappen.
Even before that, however, the race was contentious, with Hamilton asserting that Verstappen pushed him off the track on Lap 1, while Verstappen arguing that Hamilton needed to return a position he gained unfairly.
After the race was brought to a halt under a safety car due to Nicholas Latifi’s Lap 53 crash, Hamilton regularly called in to his engineer Peter Bonnington to raise concerns about the stewarding, ultimately admitting that”this is getting manipulated” and that he was “speechless” at the decisions.
Those radio messages, though, are all Hamilton would point to in Brazil in 2024, saying, “It’s not really something I really want to tap into as it’s nothing to do with me at the moment. Obviously if I was in the battle, I could lean more into it.
“But these are things you have to ask those two because they’re the ones that it’s affecting.
“But I don’t think you’re seeing much difference across the years from 2021 until now, it’s pretty much the same.”