Lewis Hamilton was at the centre of the latest F1 paddock gossip as an email was circulated suggesting Mercedes have been nobbling its once superstar driver. As the Formula One teams assembled in Barcelona, Hamilton denied all knowledge of the document, yet there was an air of authenticity about its contents given recent complaints made by Lewis himself.

As the cars hit the track in anger, Hamilton looked to be on form as he topped the time sheets in free practice two. Mercedes had brought upgrades to the troublesome W15 machine, though by FP3 the true pace of the Mercedes became clear.

Lewis was 0.346 seconds slower than Carlos Sainz who was quickest in the final practice session, then in qualifying Hamilton who only for the second time this year conquered his team mate, was again 0.318 seconds behind the surprise pole sitter Lando Norris.

 

 

 

Hamilton bullish over Mercedes hopes

Lewis Hamilton crowed about how he was now enjoying being in the fight once more after he and team mate George Russell qualified third and fourth respectively. “It’s great,” Hamilton told the official F1 channel. “For us to get a third and fourth, it’s amazing for us to be finally really, really in the mix and breathing down the leader’s neck.

“While the gap was three tenths, I think the lap wasn’t perfect at the end. The car’s quite tricky. I think there was a good couple of tenths in it.

“But that’s really positive, that we have climbed up. We’ve got a little bit of work to do to completely, finally, close that gap, but hopefully tomorrow in the race, we’ll be better off.”

As the qualifying session progressed, the cloud cover came across the Barcelona track causing the temperatures to drop which played into Mercedes hands and against Ferrari. And so Hamilton’s assessment that Mercedes were “breathing down the leader’s neck” is somewhat deluded.

Russell on notice as Mercedes finds fatal flaw

 

 

 

Norris and Verstappen concur

With Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz lining up in order behind the Mercedes for today’s race, the pressure will be on from the get go for Hamilton and Russell to retain track position from the charging Scuderia cars.

Lando Norris and Max Verstappen shared words after the qualifying session was complete and both were shocked at the lenient decision made by the stewards to punish Charles Leclerc. In practice three, Charles Leclerc was on a flying lap when he came across the McLaren of Lando Norris.

Having been forced to slow through a section of the Montmelo track where cars cannot overtake, the Monegasque driver became frustrated and moved aggressively across the track making contact with Lando. The stewards decided to reprimand the Ferrari driver, but failed to back this up with any kind of penalty.

This decision was questionable in a number of the drivers’ minds, with Norris and Verstappen debating it following the end of the qualifying session.

FIA under pressure over Monaco GP

 

 

 

Leclerc escapes severe penalty

In a video clip posted online, Verstappen approached Norris after the interviews for P1-P3 and was heard saying: “It is very strange that he has been reprimanded.” Lando then replied, while visibly shocked: “That’s what he got?”

Verstappen then confirmed: “Yes, just a reprimand.” Lando was clearly stunned by the stewards decision and replied in disbelief: “My entire front wing was ruined!”

Verstappen concluded the discussion stating: “I know, yes, crazy.” This is yet another example of the poor standard of stewarding this season as TJ13 continues to call for full time professional stewards, rather than the current grace and favour method by which the FIA selects those to police each F1 Grand Prix.

Sainz announced as Williams driver

 

 

 

FIA stewarding consistency in question again

Leclerc’s explanation was somewhat different from what the video replays revealed about the incident. Speaking after qualifying Charles claimed: “The version is very simple. Lando exited the pit lane and I was behind on a push lap. Then when he aborted, I also aborted.

“I braked to be alongside him and I misjudged. So I was on the right, I didn’t want to impede either the cars behind, so I was a bit in the middle by being frustrated and looking in the mirror. It was very dangerous to try and not impede, and then we collided. But it was a misunderstanding more than anything,” pleaded the Monaco GP winner of 2024.

The Ferrari driver was asked directly whether he had turned in on Norris deliberately, to which he replied: “No, no, no. I mean, you’re always frustrated when you do that, but you never want to touch, because obviously, in FP3, that’s the last thing you want to do, to damage the car, first of all, because I’ve got qualifying right after. So it’s never the goal.”

Whilst it maybe never the goal, the footage clearly suggests this is exactly what Leclerc did do, though he was exonerated from any intent by the ruling of the FIA stewards.

Aston Martin boss responds to Newey move

 

 

 

Ferrari still bouncing in year 3

Ferrari brought upgrades to their cars for the Spanish Grand Prix, though their drivers were somewhat puzzled after qualifying only in P5/P6. The soon to be departing Carlos Sainz called out the Ferrari team for failing to fix the bouncing their car has suffered when the sport is now in year three of the ground effect regulations.

“We’ve been struggling all weekend with the high-speed corners,” said the Spaniard. “We still have this phenomenon, bouncing phenomenon, that gives us a very tough time in the high-speed corners. Probably this is also killing a bit the tyre for the third sector. I don’t know.

“But still the third year of these regulations [and] I’m fighting this porpoising in high-speed corners when you put lateral load in the car. And it’s been tough all weekend to try and get rid of it. And still we haven’t managed to get rid of it.

“We come to this track, and you can see McLaren and Red Bull with zero bouncing, and I think they’re doing a good job,” with the implied comment that Ferrari are doing less of a good job than their rivals.

Squabbles at Mercedes? What was really going on?

 

 

 

Hamilton now identified in Mercedes sabotage accusation

Lewis Hamilton is for many a marmite character. People either love him with a blind passion – the Hamfosi, as we named them here on TJ13 – or maybe there are others who see the seven times world champion as a master of media manipulation. And in the sport of Formula One, understanding how to bend the media to your point of view is a skill learned over many years.

Lewis is not having a good year. He is 8-1 down to team mate George Russell in both qualifying and race finishing positions so far and Hamilton set the tin hat posse into a spin when in Monaco he claimed that he would not beat Russell for the rest of the year in qualifying… READ MORE