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With the F1 calendar swiftly evolving, Lewis Hamilton wants the sport to focus more on street circuits. The Briton claims that focusing on street circuits is the right path for F1 to ensure that the sport has a real impact on people and communities, rather than continuing to host races in several historic European countries and circuits that lack diversity. His 2021 rival Max Verstappen, however, is certainly not of the same opinion.
As reported by PlanetF1, the seven-time world champion said:
“I’m a bit old school. So of course I love the history, particularly at certain circuits, but the older I get the more I realise it’s about the people. We could go to the middle of nowhere that has very few people, not great accommodation, not great community and for us as individuals driving on a track that’s historic is cool – but it’s about the people. And the people really do make it. We’ve experienced, with the pandemic, nobody being in there and that’s just no atmosphere. It was like a test day. It was not enjoyable. And now we are seeing hundreds of thousands of people turn up to the race energised, excited, keen to learn more.”
Hamilton then went on to reiterate the sport's commitment to its fans and to making an impact wherever it goes, by saying:
“I think the fans are at the heart of what this sport is about, they create it. I think being in cities, we can really engage in communities and actually also have an impact. I love the Nurburgring, for example, but there’s not a diverse community there. We are not actually impacting the place there. In Miami we can do something. I met a bunch of kids from diverse backgrounds who now want to get into engineering and STEM subjects and so it’s way cooler for me.”
The recently announced Las Vegas Grand Prix will make up for the eighth street circuit race on the F1 calendar in 2023, with this year's inaugural Miami GP taking it up to seven in 2022.
Lewis Hamilton claims Mercedes "just haven’t improved" so far in 2022
Despite a strong result for the Silver Arrows at the Miami Grand Prix last weekend, Lewis Hamilton claims that the car's pace is no different than it was in Bahrain.
As reported by PlanetF1, the Briton admitted that he hopes the car will improve over the course of the season, saying:
“We’re the same speed as we were in the first race and we just haven’t improved in these five races. But I’m hopeful at some stage we will. We just have to keep trying and keep working hard. From race to race, track to track, surface to surface, how high we put the car – we can put the car higher and reduce it – so today wasn’t actually really bad, just not fast.”
Although Mercedes have visibly had issues this season, Lewis Hamilton particularly seems to be struggling, given that he has been outperformed by his teammate on several occasions.
