Questions asked of Lewis Hamilton and Adrian Newey’s Red Bull admission – F1 news round-up

Sam Cooper 30 Nov 2023 10:00 PM

Adrian Newey, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton on the podium.

Adrian Newey and Lewis Hamilton were both in the news today.

In today’s news, Lewis Hamilton’s ability to rediscover his prime form was put under the microscope while Adrian Newey revealed what first brought him to Red Bull.

Newey has been an integral part of Red Bull since 2006 but it took a fair bit of convincing by Christian Hroner and co. to get him on board.

Meanwhile one former McLaren driver raised a question about another.

David Coulthard ponders Lewis Hamilton prime question

It has been a good few years since we have seen Lewis Hamilton at the front winning races and despite having done so 103 times in the past, David Coulthard has pondered whether Hamilton will get back to that level.

When talking about if Mercedes improve to be at the front of the grid once again, DC asked if Hamilton would be able to recreate his “prime” performances.

“This is not Lewis at his prime,” the Scot declared to Channel 4. “This is Lewis in a very frustrating two-year state of underperforming.

“When he gets a winning car again, it’ll be really interesting to see if he can rediscover the old Lewis magic.”

Adrian Newey reveals key reason for joining Red Bull

Leaving McLaren for newcomers Red Bull may seem like a good idea now but back in 2006, Adrian Newey doing just that raised eyebrows.

Having won titles at both McLaren and Williams, many wondered why he would choose to leave the former but Newey has revealed his motivation behind his decision.

“When the Red Bull offer came up, it was really the attraction of being involved in a team more or less from the start and therefore able to kind of mould it and set it up in the way that I felt would work from an engineering point of view,” he said.

“Being lucky enough to have success at Williams and McLaren, they were both great teams that have won races and championships long before I arrived.

“And perhaps, in both cases the competitiveness had gone down a little bit.

“But when I joined, my job was very much a design based job. It was trying to improve the competitiveness of the car.

“Both teams were well established.”

Lewis Hamilton reveals alarming Max Verstappen trend

Verstappen may have won 19 races this year but that is not the part that most alarms Hamilton. Instead, it is the fact he did it with ease.

Hamilton told the BBC: “You can go through the lap times and some of the data from Max; he is just chilling at the front more often than not. I don’t think he has broken a sweat during the year.

“Even when we were chasing him in Austin, I don’t think he was sweating. I think he was just able to control it.

“And when you are in that position where you have performance and can back off, the car goes further. The tyres go longer and you are in a sweet spot and it is amazing to be in that place.

“Ultimately, [Verstappen and Red Bull] have done an amazing job and worked and deserve it.”

Logan Sargeant verdict made

As well as his Hamilton thoughts, Coulthard also commented on the future of Logan Sargeant with the American still yet to be confirmed for next year.

“The obvious one in comparison in lap time, has to be Logan Sargeant,” said Coulthard. “Half a second away from Albon.

“And I feel for Logan, because I genuinely would like all these guys to have success because it’s a privilege to be a professional sportsperson, but it just doesn’t seem to have gelled.

“For some drivers who have success in the lower formulas, Formula 1 is just a different animal and the consistency of performance, even though he had a great qualifying in Vegas and I think it was Zandvoort he did a really good job, but there’s just been too many sort of missed opportunities.

“And I’d be curious to know EJ, whether if he were in your team, and it was no financial benefit in keeping him or nationality benefit, would he make your two? And with the hope that suddenly he’s going to discover some pace and the penny is going to drop.”

Lawrence Stroll confronts Eddie Jordan over Lance Stroll doubts

Criticise Lance Stroll at your peril it seems after Eddie Jordan revealed doing so landed him in hot water with Lawrence Stroll.

Jordan said: “I remember having one of the few rucks that I’ve had, I remember Lawrence Stroll coming to me to say, ‘Why did you say?’, I was working with you [David Coulthard] and Mark [Webber] on Channel 4, I think I said would Lance Stroll get a drive without his father’s help or influence and he wasn’t happy about that.

“I’ll now come back to that and I’ll say that I think he does warrant and justify his position in Formula 1, but he is never going to be a number one driver from what I can see at the moment.”