“You never know what is going to happen but I have been there before and I
know what it is like to go to the last race and lose the championship and
that is not an energy I want. I wouldn’t perhaps advise it for the following
years.”
Hamilton has a 17-point lead in the drivers’ championship over Rosberg, with
100 still available, starting this weekend at the US Grand Prix.
The Briton came straight from New York, and a 91-second appearance on the Today
show, to try to light up Formula One after a month of few smiles. First,
there was Jules Bianchi’s accident – his family said on Thursday that the
Frenchman was still in a “critical but stable” condition, ahead of the
trialling of a “speed limit” system in today’s practice session on safety
grounds. Then there was the demise of Marussia and Caterham. Manfredi
Ravetto, the recently-departed Caterham boss, expressed his fear that staff
at the factory in Leafield, Oxfordshire, are not being paid.
Both teams have been given dispensation to miss the next two races, but the
FIA felt the need to issue an unusual statement on Thursday which made clear
it was motorsport’s governing body, not Bernie Ecclestone, who had the
authority to allow such exemptions. It added that the crisis “acutely
raised” the subject of F1’s spiralling costs.
One solution offered to bolster the dwindling grid would be three-car teams.
While most of the drivers – with an eye on a more competitive seat –
expressed their support, the most experienced head in the paddock poured
scorn on the idea.
Jenson
Button, who will be forced to take a five-place grid penalty this
weekend as a result of a gearbox change, said: “I’m not in favour of it. F1
has been two cars for a very long time. I think it would be a shame if we
went to three cars.
“The problem is you can say there are more competitive drives available, but
there’s the issue of having one team like Mercedes have been this year,
where they are so much better than everyone else and they have the podium to
themselves. You’ll never see another car on the podium.”