Lewis Hamilton is content to stay at Mercedes (Picture: Getty Images)
The drivers and team personnel are normally pretty knackered at the end of a season but 2023 has pushed things to a new level. At 22 rounds from March through to now, this has been the longest year in F1 yet.
Las Vegas was particularly punishing, with a practice session that went on until 4am and a race that started on Saturday and finished on Sunday.
The day after the chequered flag in Sin City, the teams were reassembling their bases in Abu Dhabi.
The paddock has flown for at least 20 hours and had to readjust its time zone by 12 hours. After nine months on the road, people are walking around like zombies.
For next year, which is currently slated to finish on a triple-header of Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, the drivers have begun pleading with the organisers to give them a week off after the US night race.
In such an exhausting situation, it is perhaps not surprising the sport’s decision-makers have faced suggestions of being forgetful.
Christian Horner and Max Verstappen won’t be joined by Lewis Hamilton (Picture: Getty Images)
Take Christian Horner, for instance, who told the Daily Mail this week Lewis Hamilton’s camp had been in touch about a Red Bull drive in 2024.
Speaking yesterday in Abu Dhabi, Hamilton dismissed that claim, saying: ‘No, I didn’t approach them. Christian messaged me.’
Hamilton says he recently switched on an old phone of his, and it vibrated with hundreds of unread messages.
He revealed: ‘There was one there from Christian, (asking) to get together and have a chat at the end of the season. He didn’t say (it was about driving for them). He just said about having a catch-up.
‘It was quite late on that I found the message. It was, like, months later. I just replied to him on my new phone.’
The Mercedes driver, who signed a new two-year contract in late August, says he sent congratulations to Horner on Red Bull’s dominant season, adding he hoped Mercedes would bring the fight in 2024. Horner apparently returned the sentiment.
With Sergio Perez securing the runner-up spot in the championship over Hamilton with his third place in Las Vegas, the Mexican’s position at Red Bull appears safe for next year – or at least the start of the season.
However, Hamilton suspects this is all less about securing the seven-time world champion’s services, and more about putting the cat among the pigeons.‘There’s a lot of people here that like to drop my name in many conversations, because they know it’s going to make waves,’ asserted the 103-time grand-prix winner.
‘If you’re a little bit lonely and aren’t getting much attention, it’s a perfect thing to do. Just mention my name. He is stirring things.’
Hamilton added although anyone would want to drive ‘the most dominant car of all time’, the RB19, he feels sticking with Mercedes is better for his ‘legacy’. He denied he was scared of squaring up to Max Verstappen in identical equipment, insisting: ‘I’d be more than happy to race against Max in the same car. That would be wonderful. [But] I don’t think he wants me to be his team-mate.’
This weekend at Yas Marina, we’re returning to the scene of their most explosive battle, in 2021. It would be poetic if Hamilton can take his first win in two years here and snatch the curtain-closing victory from his Dutch foe.
F1 fed up with f-bombs from bosses
Toto Wolff has been told to keep it clean (Picture: Getty Images)
Mercedes chief Toto Wolff and Ferrari grand fromage Fred Vasseur have received a ticking-off from the FIA for using bad language.
The pair were rather fruity in the lingo stakes during the teams’ press conference in Las Vegas, with Wolff laying into a reporter for being negative about the state of the circuit, while Vasseur was thoroughly fed up about a loose drain cover destroying one of his cars.
The two supremos have been told their F-bombs were ‘unacceptable’ and ‘the FIA will not tolerate the use of such language in any FIA forums by any stakeholder’.
Meanwhile, the American TV network CBS has commissioned a new workplace-based comedy, with F1’s sweariest team principal, Guenther Steiner, announced as an executive producer.
Guenther Steiner was the cult hero of Drive to Survive (Picture: Getty Images)
According to Hollywood site Deadline, the fictional series will be set in the world of sports, with a ‘Steiner-esque’ boss heading up a team.
We will wait and see if it features Steiner’s best-known catchphrase from Drive to Survive: ‘We look like a bunch of w*****s.’
MORE : Lewis Hamilton hits back at Christian Horner over claims he held talks with Red Bull
MORE : ‘I wouldn’t mind’ – Max Verstappen reacts to claims Lewis Hamilton held talks with Red Bull
The F1 season is winding down, but the rumour mill keeps churning.