F1

LEWIS HAMILTON will not turn his back on Formula One according to former F1 champ and his ex-teammate, Jenson Button.Hamilton is “disillusioned” with the sport after being robbed of a record eighth world title at the Abu Dhabi GP when FIA Race Director Michael Masi manipulated safety car rules.
Jensen Button believes Lewis Hamilton will continue to raceCredit: Splash News
Hamilton is considering retirement after losing the championship in controversial circumstances last yearCredit: Reuters
The upshot was that Hamilton was left a sitting duck on old tyres and Max Verstappen passed him in a single-lap shootout to win the race and the championship.
Livid Hamilton has since made a silent protest, raising doubts as to whether he will return to compete in 2022.
But Button, who was teammates with Hamilton for three years at McLaren, is optimistic he will return.
He said: “I was the only person to interview Lewis after the last race!
“I really do hope he will be racing. I think he will be racing. He wants to win that eighth title and be the most decorated Formula One driver in F1 history. And he will do that, I really do think so.
“[It was] a controversial end to the season but I really do think you have to look at the season as a whole.
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“Formula One is in an amazing place, two fantastic drivers going at it every weekend and I think everyone is excited about the new season.
“New regulations and it is all about the development of these cars through the year.”
The FIA have started their investigation into just how Masi got the end to the Abu Dhabi GP so wrong and will report their findings before the first race of the season in Bahrain.
Mercedes are understood to be pushing hard for the Australian to be axed as they feel his role has been compromised.
However, former F1 driver and Sky F1 pundit Martin Brundle expects Masi to be retained but offered extra help to ensure he doesn’t make the same mistakes again.
He said: “If the FIA and F1 want Michael Masi to stay, and if Michael Masi wants to stay, he’s clearly only got one life left, hasn’t he? So I don’t know if that’s tenable all round.
“Who would you replace him with? Be careful what you wish for, I would say in this. What I absolutely know for sure is that changing Michael Masi will not fix the problem.
“This is way too big a job for one person to handle in a 23-race season [and] it’s only going to grow — we’re all over the world.
“Back in the day it was 16, 18 races for Charlie [Whiting, ex-race director] and Herbie [Blash, ex-deputy race director].
“Charlie used to start the race and Herbie was effectively the race director until Charlie got back from the starting rostrum down near the grid.
“They had it all under control, but it’s just growing exponentially. So Masi, if he stays, needs a lot of support around him, and I suspect that’s what they’re looking at, at the moment. And who would actually want to step into his shoes right now?” More

RED BULL boss Christian Horner says Max Verstappen’s maiden Formula One title has not been tarnished by the controversy at the Abu Dhabi GP.The Dutch star’s win last month came in dramatic circumstances as FIA Race Director Michael Masi ignored safety car rules to create a one-lap showdown.
Max Verstappen’s title win in Abu Dhabi came in controversial circumstances and has left his big rival Lewis Hamilton (left) considering his future in the sportCredit: Reuters
But Red Bull boss Christian Horner says Verstappen’s final-day ‘luck’ came after a season in which he dominated and deserved to win the titleCredit: Getty
The 24-year-old star was able to pass British rival Lewis Hamilton – who was a sitting duck on old tyres – to win the final-day race and F1 title in a dramatic end to the season.
Masi’s disputed call is the subject of an internal investigation while Hamilton has made his own silent protest with question marks over whether he will return to the sport.
But Horner says the win for his team’s main man Verstappen was fully-deserved and supported by Red Bull owner and Austrian billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz.
He said: “I think there’s been so much controversy throughout the year and I think there’s been so much bad luck that we’ve had during the season that these things tend to balance themselves out.
“Dietrich felt Max was very deserving. He was very proud of what he’d done and what the team had achieved.
“I think that it was such an epic year.
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“It was probably the most competitive season in Formula One in the last 30 years, and great for Red Bull, for Max, for Honda, to come out on top.
“Yes, we got a little bit lucky with the safety car at the end of the race, but so much bad luck had gone against us throughout the season.
“These things, I’ve always said, tend to balance themselves out over the course of a season, and I think Max led more than 50 percent of the laps in the year, more than every other driver combined.
“He had more pole positions, more race wins, and for me he was totally deserving.”
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LEWIS HAMILTON has remained tight-lipped on his Formula One future because he might be thinking about a Hollywood career.That is the view of former F1 world champ Jacques Villeneuve.
Lewis Hamilton has remained quiet about his F1 future because he may be considering a move to HollywoodCredit: AFP
That is the view of former world champ Jacques VilleneuveCredit: Getty Images – Getty
British superstar Hamilton has barely said a word since he was controversially robbed of a record eighth world title on the final day of last season.
And reports have been rife suggesting the 37-year-old will walk away from the sport before the start of the new campaign.
The Mercedes man is a huge success away from the track with ventures including a collaboration with fashion giant Tommy Hilfiger.
And he also writes and records his own music and even featured on Christina Aguilera’s 2018 tune Pipe.
As a result, Canadian Villeneuve, 50, reckons Hamilton might be keeping his options open.
He told La Gazzetta dello Sport: “I interpret Hamilton’s silence as him wanting to put some distance between himself and [Mercedes chief] Toto Wolff.
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“After all, you can lose with style, whereas Toto behaved like someone who is playing Monopoly.
“The moment he is losing, [he] throws the whole board into the air.
“In doing so, Wolff suffered a lot of image damage, in my opinion.
“Hamilton is sensitive to that because he is thinking about his future in America, maybe even in Hollywood.”
Despite his ambition to be a success away from the track, Villeneuve says the Brit’s return will depend on the quality of the car Mercedes produce after a few problems last season.
He added: “It depends on the car that Mercedes will give Hamilton, whether he can win easily with it or not.
“Lewis is also a bit more tired, he has had [some] easy seasons after Nico Rosberg’s departure and he really won’t want to have another year like he experienced last season.
“He thought he could easily bring in the record eighth title and that didn’t happen.
‘HURT MUCH MORE’
“It’s like a diamond that you have in your hands and then suddenly it’s taken out of your hands.
“In this way it hurt much more than if [Max] Verstappen would have simply led the whole race.”
Despite the radio silence, Merc boss Zak Brown recently told RACER he is confident Ham will stick around.
He said: “I think he’ll be back.
“He’s a racing driver. I think he’s at the top of his game.
“I’m sure he’s very angry, but I think race car drivers want to race and I think he’s a fighter, and he’ll want to come back and try to win an eighth championship.
“If he is able to do that, it would elevate him above Michael Schumacher who himself is a seven-time F1 World Champion.

“I don’t think he’s ready to retire.
“This is my own personal opinion, I’ve not talked to him, because once you hang it up, you hang it up.
“I guess you could come back as some have done, but I don’t think he’s ready to hang it up and I don’t think he’s going to let an incident put him into retirement.”
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FORMULA ONE chiefs have banned military aircraft from flying over tracks before races in a bid to cut their carbon footprint.Gas guzzling military aircraft are regularly seen flying over tracks ahead of races.
Displays of military aircraft ahead of F1 races have been bannedCredit: PA
That means the Red Arrows will no longer fly over Silverstone ahead of the British Grand PrixCredit: AP
But F1 chiefs have informed promoters they’ve made the executive decision to put an end to the practice.
In an email seen by RacingNews365, F1 have conveyed their desire to become more carbon neutral.
Italian F1 journalist Daniele Sparisci confirmed the news in the latest issue of Corriere della Sera.
He wrote: “From this season, the Grand Prix organisers will no longer be able to use military aircraft for air displays before the start of the races.”
It’s claimed the ban on military aviation is in a bid to ‘support F1’s sustainability objectives’.
Concerns that the spectacular displays of the aircraft could also be perceived as countries flexing their military muscles were also said to have prompted the ban.
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The ban – which is set to come into place this year – will bring about the end of the spectacular displays ahead of the Italian and British Grand Prixs.
The Aeronautica Militare has regularly flown over Monza ahead of the famous Italian Grand Prix.
And the Red Arrows have done the same at Silverstone ahead of the British Grand Prix.
The Italian Air Force will no longer fly over MonzaCredit: GETTY
The ban on pre-race aviation is currently limited to military planes and helicopters, meaning civilian and commercial aircraft will still be permitted to fly on race day.
But they’ll be allowed to do so if the aircraft is being powered by sustainable fuels.
The new F1 season, in which Red Bull’s Max Verstappen will bid to defend his controversially-claimed world title, will get underway on March 20.
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SPRINT RACES could be scrapped for the 2022 F1 season, just one year after they were introduced.A disagreement over the money involved in increasing the number of sprints in the F1 season from three to six could see them wiped out altogether.
A stand-off over money could see F1 sprint races scrapped in 2022Credit: Getty
The British, Italian and Brazilian GP’s each had one of the controversial sprint races the day before the main race, instead of the traditional qualifying session.
And wherever the drivers finished in those sprints, was where they started on the grid for the main race on the Sunday.
Eight out of 10 teams must agree on the details for the increase in sprint races, but McLaren boss Zak Brown claims there are issues related to the money involved.
As a majority needs to agree on the vote, teams can essentially hold the others hostage in exchange for more money.
And Brown said, as quoted by the BBC: “A couple of teams, and one team in particular, wanted a $5m (£3.7m) budget cap increase, which was just ridiculous.
“And no rational facts behind it. When you challenged them, they go to what if and could and you’ve got to anticipate. You sit there and go ‘This is just nonsense’.”
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But for the 2023 season the number of teams needed to agree on a vote for the sprint races drops to just five.
So Brown continued: “Maybe there can be a compromise raised and we raise it a little bit, and we start in 2022 or we skip 2022, and a couple of these teams should have to explain to the fans why there is no sprint races.”
This latest twist to the drama-filled world that is F1 comes amid speculation Lewis Hamilton could RETIRE from the sport.
The FIA are set to publish results from an inquiry concerning the controversial Abu Dhabi Grand Prix just two days before the start of the 2022 season.
And Hamilton’s future is said to hang in the balance, depending on the result of that inquiry.
Hamilton unfollowed everyone on Instagram last month in the aftermath of the chaotic title decider at Yas Marina.
And his silence has only heightened speculation that he may have competed in his last F1 race.
However he is set to speak for the first time next month at the official launch of Mercedes’ car for the 2022 season, where questions on his future are sure to be posed to him. More