Lewis Hamilton called out over ‘selective memory’ as McLaren reveal secret – F1 news round-up

Oliver Harden 09 Nov 2023 10:00 PM

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton attends a sponsor event ahead of the 2023 Brazilian Grand Prix. — Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton attends a sponsor event.

It’s been another fast-paced day of F1 news as the heat from Brazil dies down and the anticipation for next weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix starts to build.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has accused Lewis Hamilton of having a “selective memory”, while McLaren have identified the secret currently stopping them from challenging for race victories.

Without any further ado, let’s get stuck into today’s top stories…

Lewis Hamilton accused of ‘selective memory’ by Christian Horner

Lewis Hamilton has been accused of bitterness once or twice on the subject of Red Bull’s dominance in 2023.

He was laughed out of town for suggesting an August 1 start date for the development of next year’s car to stop winning teams, for instance, with Max Verstappen claiming Hamilton had changed his tune from his own dominant days with Mercedes.

Christian Horner has become the latest to bite back, claiming Hamilton is “the one guy that shouldn’t be” passing comment on Red Bull’s dominance after his “just obscene” success between 2014 and 2021.

Me-ow.

McLaren honing in on secret to Red Bull’s success

If any team can stop Red Bull’s dominance, it currently looks as though McLaren are best placed.

Lando Norris has equalled his best-ever F1 result six times since Silverstone, but a win – Oscar Piastri’s sprint success in Qatar doesn’t really count – continues to evade them.

McLaren have an incredible platform upon which to build their 2024 car though and, crucially, are fully aware of what must be improved to challenge Red Bull beyond this year.

The signs are very good indeed. Allow team boss Andrea Stella to explain…

Ferrari reveal one-off livery for Las Vegas

Expect more of this over the next week or so.

On Thursday, Ferrari became the first team to unveil a special one-off livery for the Las Vegas GP, which – featuring flashes of white – in our humble opinion even outshines their yellow-tastic Monza effort.

A tweaked livery would not be complete with some PR guff to go along with it and Ferrari have delivered on that score too, hailing the new look as something to mark “a second golden age” for F1 in the United States.

With Red Bull also set to reveal their third and final US-based livery of 2023 in the coming days, we can barely contain our excitement…

FIA reject Haas right of review over Austin

You know an F1 team is getting desperate when they request a right of review over a race that occurred two weeks ago.

So it was for Haas in Brazil, the team now bottom of the Constructors’ standings claiming that a number of track limits violations during the United States GP in Austin were missed.

The FIA delayed a decision on Wednesday, but decided within an hour on Thursday that no new evidence had been submitted, hence the appeal was rejected.

F1’s biggest threat? Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen and Red Bull have been great in 2023, but how to appreciate that greatness when the sense of competition has been stripped away?

It is a question many an F1 fan has struggled with this year – and now there is science to back it up, with a leading research analyst studying how F1 is holding up in the Liberty Media era.

Mr Analyst has concluded that Max represents the biggest threat of all to F1’s growth, seemingly beating all sorts of global concerns and several of the world’s ills to top spot.

Which is quite a compliment when you think about it.