Lewis Hamilton has delivered a stinging rebuke to criticism of his transfer from Mercedes to Ferrari, dismissing it as an irrelevance from what he describes as older, white males and insisting he “welcomes” the negativity.
Hamilton is making his debut with Ferrari this 12 months and is at the moment participating in pre-season testing in Bahrain, the place he was quickest within the morning session. This would be the 40-year-old’s nineteenth season in F1 and comes after 12 years at Mercedes with whom he received six of his seven titles. Talking in an interview for Time magazine he addressed criticism he has obtained from the previous F1 workforce chief Eddie Jordan and the game’s former chief govt Bernie Ecclestone.
“I’ve at all times welcomed the negativity,” he stated within the interview. “I by no means, ever reply to any of the older, in the end, white males who’ve commented on my profession and what they assume I ought to be doing. The way you present up, the way you current your self, the way you carry out slowly dispels that.”
Jordan questioned the knowledge of Ferrari signing Hamilton and letting Carlos Sainz go to convey him in. Equally Ecclestone queried Hamilton’s motivation and acknowledged he doubted the British driver would see out even two years on the Scuderia.
Hamilton has endured related brickbats all through his profession and has insisted he has been reinvigorated by the change to Ferrari and that he was motivated like by no means earlier than to return their first drivers’ title since 2007.
“Don’t ever evaluate me to anyone else. I’m the primary and solely Black driver that’s ever been on this sport. I’m constructed completely different. I’ve been by so much. I’ve had my very own journey,” he stated. “You’ll be able to’t evaluate me to a different 40-year-old, previous or current, Formula One driver in historical past. As a result of they’re nothing like me. I’m hungry, pushed, don’t have a spouse and youngsters. I’m centered on one factor, and that’s profitable. That’s my No 1 precedence.”
The British driver is on a multi-year contract with Ferrari the place he’ll drive alongside Charles Leclerc. He’s seeking to safe his record-breaking eighth world championship and maintained that he felt there have been a few years of racing nonetheless left in him.
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“Retirement is nowhere on my radar. I could possibly be right here till I’m 50, who is aware of,” he stated. “I do know the place I must go. I understand how to get there. It’s far, and it’s going to be powerful to get there, however I do know I’ve received all of the components, all of the individuals, an incredible workforce round me.”
