Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Interlagos, 2018

Mercedes mustn’t get distracted by ‘other ventures’ outside F1 – Hamilton

2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes can extend their dominant run in Formula 1 as long as they don’t become distracted by “other ventures”.

While rival teams have narrowed the performance gap to Mercedes since their dominant start to the V6 hybrid turbo era, Hamilton believes the team has become stronger in other areas.

“I think this year if you look at the team’s performance on the race weekends our mechanics, our engineers, strategists, we’ve all raised our game,” he said after taking pole position in Abu Dhabi.

“It’s never, ever been perfect, neither of us as drivers. But collectively, as a team, I think we’ve really continued to elevate ourselves. Which is, again, inspiring for me and that encourages me to go out there and not want to let them down.”

Hamilton believes Mercedes need to keep their focus on F1 and not become distracted by other objectives.

“I’m confident, as long as Mercedes don’t change their approach and don’t change their desire to win. Some teams decide to veer off and do some other business venture and lose a bit of focus on the main ultimate goal. As long as they don’t do that, I believe that we’ll be able to stay on this path and continue to fight at the top.”

The team mustn’t take their position for granted, he added. “Ferrari have been doing an amazing job this year,” he said. “We’ve got to keep the hammer down, keep pushing as they will be. See how close they are right now.

“And look at Valtteri, he’s been driving exceptionally well all year. I know next year again, third year with the team, he will be even quicker so we will have to rediscover new skills for next year.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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10 comments on “Mercedes mustn’t get distracted by ‘other ventures’ outside F1 – Hamilton”

  1. Wonder what Hamilton thinks about Mercedes’ interest in Formula E

  2. He’s probably alluding to McLaren inadvertently dropping the ball on F1 while they ramped up the road car side of the business. I recall it being analysed in a few write-ups a while back.

    1. Agreed, that comment was on an addressed and stamped postcard.

    2. I seem to recall Jeremy Clarkson noting that when Ferrari made great road cars, their F1 cars suffered, and when they made great F1 cars, their road cars were junk.

      McLaren seems to have fallen down that well also.

    3. I believe it boils down to having one management team look after all business units. The dude from Bahrain needs to invest a bit more to hire a few more top-level execs to make the units truly independent. Zak can probably move to a more central function, with specialists looking after Automotive, Applied Tech and Racing divisions.

  3. I’m a huge Lewis fan since day one, but it’s a bit rich coming from a guy whose designing clothes lines, making music and banging super moldels to be making that kind of comment. It’s worked out great for him personally, why not allow th team to do what the heck they deem fit, just as he does.

    1. First, “launching” and “designing” are two different things in fashion– he launched a clothing line, but I doubt he did much designing.

      Secondly, I think he’s referring specifically to Brackley, and possibly Brixworth– Mercedes is large enough they can make cars, SUV’s, tanks, airplanes, battleships, etc., without affecting the F1 team.

      Maranello and Woking, however, are making F1 cars *and* road cars, and I think it’s hurting their F1 ventures.

      If Brackley starts making LMP1 cars, or Brixworth starts designing FE powertrains, that could have a knock-on effect on the F1 team, though.

    2. Very good observation.

  4. It’s not like Mercedes are going to suddenly start producing roadcars or competing in other motorsports now is it. Only McLaren are that ambitious.

  5. In other words: once Merc starts buys into HWA, Lewis will start thinking about leaving them.

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