FEATURE
“Now the growing feeling among the
paddock is that Hamilton does not just
run Merc but the whole of Formula One
and he has become untouchable.”
“But this is Hamilton’s world. A
social media bubble where his die-hard
fans worship motorsport’s Mr Marmite
like a leader of a cult,” added Fordham.
Mercedes management played
down the affair, with team chief Toto
Wolff explaining, “Let him do his talking
on the track. His performances in the
car justify some collateral damage.
After such a race, it is not right to really
put the finger where it hurts. In my
experience of the last few years, the
situation often looks completely different
after 24 hours.”
“Our main goal is to help Lewis, but
there are ten days until Austin so there
is no need to hurry — unlike last week.
At the same time, it is true that Lewis
works best under pressure and when he
has a target. I have no doubt it will be
a tough fight until the very end. We are
still very far from being able to say that it
is over.” added Wolff.
Mercedes F1 chairman Niki
Lauda observed, “In Malaysia, Lewis
dominated but then there was the
engine failure which was not easy to
cope with for him. Then there were
the repercussions related to the press
conference, but I don’t think that
affected him at the start of the race –
that was a mistake. After that, he had a
great race,” Lauda concluded,