F1: Lewis Hamilton not interested in winning an “easy” championship

By Dec 6, 2014, 5:17 PM EST
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Lewis Hamilton’s second World Championship was decided in the final race of the 2014 season in Abu Dhabi. And in 2008, his first World Championship was decided in the final corner at Interlagos.

But despite having cut it close twice before attaining Formula One’s ultimate glory, the Mercedes man hopes his third World Championship – if and/or when it comes – doesn’t involve him cruising to the title.

“I don’t think you ever want to have it easy,” Hamilton said Friday in Doha, Qatar during the FIA’s year-end Prize Giving Ceremony. “You always want to have a fight. Easy championships, I don’t know, they’re just not as…You want that climax.

“Obviously in the last race, it was a climax – going into the last race. Obviously [Nico Rosberg’s] car had an issue, so then from halfway through the race, the pressure was different to having to defend in the race. But still, throughout the whole year, just trying to keep your cool, stay focused and all those kinds of things. It was great.”

Now, Hamilton will try to do with the Silver Arrows what he couldn’t do with McLaren in 2009 – stay at the head of the pack. That particular season saw Hamilton slip to fifth in the standings partly due to first-half difficulties with the MP4-24 machine.

But with next year’s regulations more or less being, as Hamilton put it himself, an “evolution” from this year, he hopes to be in contention again versus stiff competition from inside his team with Nico Rosberg and outside Mercedes as well.

“The good thing about this period of time in Formula One is that when I won the championship in 2008, the following year, we had a year like this with some new rules and regulations and as a team, we didn’t do a good job to adapt to that, so I didn’t have a chance to fight to keep my championship,” Hamilton explained.

“Next year will be an evolution of this year’s car so I’m hoping that we’ll be at least able to fight. Nico’s going to come back stronger and I’ll have to make sure I come back even stronger to stay ahead of him.

“You know Daniel Ricciardo has been doing an amazing job, it will be interesting to see what Fernando [Alonso] does in his car. It’s very difficult to know, but I don’t particularly care who’s behind. You don’t care, do you? You just want to look ahead.”

After New York whirlwind, Josef Newgarden makes special trip to simulator before Detroit

By Jun 2, 2023, 10:00 AM EDT
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DETROIT – There’s no rest for the weary as an Indy 500 winner, but Josef Newgarden discovered there are plenty of extra laps.

The reigning Indy 500 champion added an extra trip Wednesday night back to Concord, N.C., for one last session on the GM Racing simulator before Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.

After a 30-year run on the Belle Isle course, the race has been moved to a nine-turn, 1.7-mile layout downtown, so two extra hours on the simulator were worth it for Newgarden.

INDYCAR IN DETROIT: Entry list, schedule, TV info for this weekend

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“I really wanted to do it,” he told NBC Sports at a Thursday media luncheon. “If there’s any time that the sim is most useful, it’s in this situation when no one has ever been on a track, and we’re able to simulate it as best as we can. We want to get some seat time.

“It’s extra important coming off the Indy 500 because you’ve been out of rhythm for a road or street course-type environment, so I really wanted some laps. I was really appreciative to Chevy. There was a few guys that just came in and stayed late for me so I could get those laps before coming up here. I don’t know if it’s going to make a difference, but I feel like it’s going to help for me.”

After a whirlwind tour of New York for two days, Newgarden arrived at the simulator (which is at the GM Racing Technical Center adjacent to Hendrick Motorsports) in time for a two hour session that started at 6 p.m. Wednesday. He stayed overnight in Charlotte and then was up for an early commercial flight to Detroit, where he had more media obligations.

Newgarden joked that if he had a jet, he would have made a quick stop in Nashville, Tennessee, but a few more days away from home (where he has yet to return in weeks) is a worthy tradeoff for winning the Greatest Spectacle in Racing – though the nonstop interviews can take a toll.

“It’s the hardest part of the gig for me is all this fanfare and celebration,” Newgarden said. “I love doing it because I’m so passionate about the Indy 500 and that racetrack and what that race represents. I feel honored to be able to speak about it. It’s been really natural and easy for me to enjoy it because I’ve been there for so many years.

“Speaking about this win has been almost the easiest job I’ve ever had for postrace celebrations. But it’s still for me a lot of work. I get worn out pretty easily. I’m very introverted. So to do this for three days straight, it’s been a lot.”

Though he is terrified of heights, touring the top of the Empire State Building for the first time was a major highlight (and produced the tour’s most viral moment).

“I was scared to get to the very top level,” Newgarden said. “That thing was swaying. No one else thought it was swaying. I’m pretty sure it was. I really impressed by the facility. I’d never seen it before. It’s one of those bucket list things. If you go to New York, it’s really special to do that. So to be there with the wreath and the whole setup, it just felt like an honor to be in that moment.”

Now the attention shifts to Detroit and an inaugural circuit that’s expected to be challenging. Along with a Jefferson Avenue straightaway that’s 0.9 miles long, the track has several low-speed corners and a “split” pit lane (teams will stop on both sides of a rectangular area) with a narrow exit that blends just before a 90-degree lefthand turn into Turn 1.

Newgarden thinks the track is most similar to the Music City Grand Prix in Nashville.

“It’s really hard to predict with this stuff until we actually run,” he said. “Maybe we go super smooth and have no issues. Typically when you have a new event, you’re going to have some teething issues. That’s understandable. We’ve always got to massage the event to get it where we want it, but this team has worked pretty hard. They’ve tried to get feedback constantly on what are we doing right, what do we need to look out for. They’ve done a ton of grinding to make sure this surface is in as good of shape as possible.

“There’s been no expense spared, but you can’t foresee everything. I have no idea how it’s going to race. I think typically when you look at a circuit that seems simple on paper, people tend to think it’s not going to be an exciting race, or challenging. I find the opposite always happens when we think that way. Watch it be the most exciting, chaotic, entertaining race.

Newgarden won the last two pole positions at Belle Isle’s 2.35-mile layout and hopes to continue the momentum while avoiding any post-Brickyard letdown.

“I love this is an opportunity for us to get something right quicker than anyone else,” he said. “A new track is always exciting from that standpoint. I feel I’m in a different spot. I’m pretty run down. I’m really trying to refocus and gain some energy back for tomorrow. Which I’ll have time to today, which is great.

“I don’t want that Indy 500 hangover. People always talk about it. They’ve always observed it. That doesn’t mean we have to win this weekend, but I’d like to leave here feeling like we had a really complete event, did a good job and had a solid finish leading into the summer. I want to win everywhere I go, but if we come out of here with a solid result and no mistakes, then probably everyone will be happy with it.”