There are many times in life when people propose ideas which are then met with objections. Also, in response to this, the critic is then asked to suggest an idea of their own. However, when being asked to do so, the person tends to be unable to contribute any innovative ideas but is adamant that they ‘don’t want that’. This is the situation Lewis Hamilton seems to find himself in - following his recent comments that F1 needs to be more creative with double headers...although he does not know how.  

Several weeks ago, ahead of the Austrian double-header, there were many naysayers claiming that a second race of twenty Formula One cars navigating the Red Bull Ring would be boring and predictable. As it turned out, there were not twenty cars in the running for long as a result of Sebastian Vettel’s SF1000 finding its aerodynamics altered following his collision with teammate Charles Leclerc. As a result of this, the Scuderia Ferrari talisman was unable to even complete the first lap - not exactly predictable. Nevertheless, the race winner of the inaugural Styrian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton, has claimed that more needs to be done by Formula One for these double-headers – the next one coming at Silverstone aka the home of Formula One. 

“I definitely think we should be trying to be more creative maybe, but I don’t know what that is,” the six-time F1 Champion announced when speaking to the media. 

“I don’t have the answers for it, but just shifting a tyre is not going to make any difference, literally no difference really for us...It’s a question of format. If you’re going to do back-to-back, it’s a shame we can’t reverse the circuit and go the other way, but obviously that was never in the game plan when designing these circuits.” 

Anyone who tuned in to the Twitch streams of the F1 drivers in lockdown would have seen drivers Alex Albon, Lando Norris, George Russell, Nicholas Latifi, Antonio Giovinazzi and Charles Leclerc taking on Silverstone, Monaco and Spa-Francorchamps in reverse. As enjoyable as this was to see, there is no way that this can come to the fore due to a whole host of safety regulations and the fact circuits are specifically certified for being navigated in a certain way.  

So then, what of any other potential gimmick – as labelled by Mercedes-AMG Team Principal Toto Wolff? 

Well, whatever Formula One may have planned, they better choose against a reverse grid race concept as Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel’s reaction to such a suggestion is well documented.  

I can speak firsthand on this as a result of having posed the question to the drivers back in Singapore in 2019. 

For those who may not be one of almost 500 thousand people to have viewed this viral Motorlat moment – let's take a trip back in time.  

Following a superbly close top three of qualifying separated by 0.2 seconds, Motorlat posed the question: 

“With the reverse grid proposals, you would be starting 20th, 19th and 18th. Your thoughts please on any discussion that people talk about a reverse grid?” 

After some soundbites from the drivers, Sebastian Vettel responded with, “I think it’s complete *#?*#?* to be honest. I think we know… if you want to improve things I think it’s very clear we need to string the field more together, we need to have better racing. So, it’s just a plaster. I don’t know which genius came up with this but it’s not the solution. It’s completely the wrong approach,” 

Mercedes’ six-time F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton agreed with his rival by saying “I don’t really know what to say to it. People that propose that don’t really know what they’re talking about.” 

Back to present day and Lewis Hamilton has shared his pleasure at seeing the reverse grid proposal fail to come to fruition: 

“If we qualified at the front, and then you put us last it would be a bit of a difficult one,” Hamilton said. "I wonder if there are other series that are doing anything different that we could look into. We have these two races in Silverstone and we could definitely do something to spice it up, particularly for the second one I think.” 

So, in conclusion, plenty of drivers including the reigning champion have made clear that they want to see changes in the sport. However, no one can suggest how the spectacle could be altered. And to think, we thought being an F1 steward was a hard job. 

Good luck F1, the second Silverstone race is just over three weeks away... 

https://www.motorlat.com/notas/f1/16146/f1-i-horner-budapest-lockdown-will-be-tough-but-worth-it