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Red Bull's call to rein in Mercedes is "funny," says Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton said today that he finds Red Bull's call for the FIA to rein in Mercedes as "funny" – given the success that RBR had in previous years.
Hamilton is adamant that Mercedes has worked hard to get where it is today.
"I find it quite funny," he said when asked by this writer about Christian Horner's comments. "It's an interesting opinion coming from individuals who have had so much success. Also it's only been one race, so to already have comments after the first race is what I find funny.
"And then on the personal side it was a big step for me to come to this team that had had so many years of poor performance – they hadn't had the success of other teams. Not once did this team ever complain to others in order to equalise things, they just worked their arses off. We came to this team and saw them making that progress, and now they're the best team, we've pulled together and done an amazing job.
"It's not just me here it's more than a thousand people working back at the two factories to build the best car, and we've done that with the same rules and the same resources that the other top teams have generally had. I'm really very proud of that. I think it's kind of a funny situation."
Hamilton is confident that Mercedes can stay ahead as this season unfolds: "With my understanding of the rules and how F1 is, and knowing how limited your time is in the wind tunnel and development, we all have that same amount of time. Providing we push forward thr same speed as everyone else, we should stay ahead. I believe the team will do that. Of course we never knew what others were going to do coming into the season, we didn't know how much improvement others would have done.
"But we're obviously very pleased with the work the team has done – obviously we were pretty competitive last year, and to still make an improvement on top of that is pretty exceptional. It's a true showing of how amazing this team is now. If these people stay in the same place, and the right philosophy is taken, this team will be strong for many, many years."
Meanwhile Lewis is hoping that he can keep up his Australian GP form.
"It's only one qualifying session and Nico didn't get his qualifying session right. I'm happy that I was able to perform that way and I plan to keep performing in that way. It still wasn't perfect and I can improve, and with the race I think it just continued generally what I was doing for. There's not really much progress – it's small increments.
"I think Nico will be quick this weekend and he'll be pushing as hard as he always did last year in qualifying. I've just got to try and keep up the momentum from the last race if I can."
Tagged as F1, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
12 responses to "Red Bull's call to rein in Mercedes is "funny," says Hamilton"
**Paul**
Here's what Lewis had to say in 2013 (keep in mind here that in the average qualifying time advantage for RBR was around 0.1s):
"I tried to imagine what it would be like if I was winning races the way he (Vettel) is winning races. Me, I don't want to be able to be that far ahead, I want to be able to fight with him or whoever. "
So yeah it is funny what Horner is saying, it's nearly as funny as what Lewis is saying!
F1 Comedians!
acherco
Yes he won by 1.5 seconds in australia . He never asked the fia to slow down redbul did he. Tell me the last time redbul won by 1.5 seconds.
DFroN
Except Lewis has a competitive teammate pushing him in every session who is actually allowed to race him, taking the title to the wire in the process. Vettel did not have that.
Not only that, he also said 'the continuing domination of Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel was killing Formula One as a spectacle, adding that he "feels for the fans".'
"It's strange, you know," he said. "Me and Fernando in fifth and sixth at the end, and having our own little race, we are of a higher calibre than that. We should be further ahead, and fighting with the world champions at the front, and with Sebastian. I guess that shows where the sport is today."
It's a funny situation, indeed!
Haha, exactly.
As much as I dislike the whining and complaing of red bull, saying "Not once did this team ever complain to others in order to equalise things" is ridiculous. I remember Nikki Lauda every race weekend complaining on RTL about the pirelli tires, when tire wear was worse on the mercedes than on any other car. Or constant complaining about red bulls moveably aero despite passing all tests, and much more. Pretending like they didn't complain is ridiculous.
iberianmph.com
Yeah, wot Christian's saying is zat these regs R only sustainable 4 big car companies & not independent teams, plus technology is totally irrelevant.
2010 & '12 RBR didn't dominate in Mumm GP fashion.
Hybrids or not, I just want more race winners & more teams fighting for podium places, which old regs provided in style by zee vei.
Ho, did they? I quite remember vettel winning 13 on the trot. I guess you don't remember 2013, the again we all have selective memory. So what do you want the fia to do ban Mercedes because they are too clever or tell redbul to catch up like Ferrari is doing or ban merc from f1. All you want the world to think the is fixing the race because that's exactly what will happen if they interfere.
I specifically pointed out 2010 & 2012. Don't mess with mothersucking pundits, son.
akismet-5ff276dd0d46accd74f84a6d1606d4a7
I guess he forgets all the years of complaining McLaren and Mercedes had when he was with them about Red Bull running a legal car. But thats not surprising.
In other news … if BBC is looking for someone to fill Jezza's shoes, they need not look much further than Lewis.
He say's about as many dumb things that polarize opinion, he has the same self-important ego, he can drive sufficiently well to test the cars, and he's a home grown boy that ticks a few other boxes for the Beeb.
Just on Horner's calls for equalization … all the press and talk has been around whether or not it would be acceptable for the FIA to reign in Mercedes, but everyone is missing the fact that in order to equalize the field there is another option … AND it has existing precedent.
Last time there was an engine freeze, Renault applied for exemption to improve their engine to be more competitive with that of Ferrari and Toyota, who were believed to have the most powerful engine at that stage … and they were granted it.
The FIA needs to follow the same process in this case and basically remove the token system for teams it feels need the opportunity to catch up. In fact, remove the token development every engine except that of the winning manufacturer.
Under that system, Mercedes is not being penalized for the good work they have done, but they are also not being falsely rewarded for getting a head start and having daft rules prevent the other from catching up.