Lewis Hamilton has criticised Formula 1’s younger drivers for being too cautious in wet conditions, claiming they are pushing race control to not race while the “old-school” drivers want to get going.
The topic of racing in wet weather has been an on-off topic over the last few years, with multiple races truncated by rainy conditions, some of which sparking debate about whether the rain was heavy enough to warrant a delay.
Albeit on the tangent of the embarrassing software glitch in Malaysia, racing in wet weather has placed itself back on the agenda, furthered by the delay of last Saturday’s Sprint Race at the Singapore Grand Prix.
In the days leading up to the race, Hamilton, speaking to media at the Marina Bay Circuit, indicated a change of approach to wet races needs to happen.
“Wet-weather races aren’t the same as we used to have, for sure,” he said. “I love racing in the rain, personally. I do think the guys running the show are far more cautious, but then again, the young drivers coming in are more and more cautious.
“Us old-school drivers are like, ‘Let’s get racing’, and more of the youngsters are like, ‘Let’s not race’. So they’re getting two different bits of information, and they are super cautious as well.
“So that’s where I’m like, ‘Let’s get going’, under extreme conditions. Because that’s where we really get to test ourselves. Is it more risky? Absolutely.”
Lewis Hamilton: Wet racing is where ‘you can make the difference’
Hamilton, who started on slick tyres at Sepang and recovered to finish third, said those conditions are where a driver earns his money.
“When I was out on the Slick tyre, it was in the trickiest conditions as well, but I love that challenge,” he said. “That’s what racing is, where you have to drive at the seat of the pants, and that’s really where you can make the difference.”
The seven-time World Champion did accept that drivers have less to work with than when he won in the rain in 2008.
“We ultimately back then had more testing, we did have better tyres for the rain, because we were able to develop more with Bridgestone back in the day,” he said.
Not everyone shared his view of Sepang. Carlos Sainz, 32, said the FIA got the timing right.
“I think we all agreed it was raining too much to go racing,” the Williams driver said. “The time that they gave the green light to go racing was the perfect one.”
At 22, Isack Hadjar, is one of the younger drivers on the grid, and pointed to the equipment. The Red Bull driver, who ran through the gravel on the formation lap in Malaysia, said the Intermediate tyres “can’t really take any standing water” and that the new power units leave drivers unsure “when the power is going to kick in”.
“That’s not how I grew up,” Hadjar said. “For me, you put wet tyres on a wet track and you just drive; and now it’s hard, it’s like, ‘I have to avoid this patch’, all this.”
Sergio Perez disagreed on the power delivery. “It’s a lot easier than I thought because you can control the amount of kilowatts you get,” the Cadillac driver said. “You can go from 350kW to 250kW, 200kW.”
READ MORE – Has F1 lost its sense of wet weather adventure?
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