Briatore does not appreciate Hamilton’s behavior (among others)

The director of the Renault Formula 1 team, Flavio Briatore, believes, in an article published yesterday, that Lewis Hamilton did not play an optimal role last year and was not the ideal teammate.

Hamilton was the rookie who made the best start to a career in F1 in 2007 with McLaren-Mercedes. The Briton won no fewer than 4 races and secured the position of vice-world champion, 1 point behind Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari) and one point ahead of his former teammate, Fernando Alonso.

The head of the French team claims that if Hamilton had focused more on the team and not on himself, not seeking preferential treatment, he would have been able to win the title. Indeed, with two GPs left in the season, he had a lead of 17 points over Räikkönen and Alonso. In the last GP, he finished third, behind his teammate. If the cooperation had been better, we might have seen the Spaniard let Hamilton pass to hand him the title.

« Hamilton is very young and has a lot of talent but he lost this opportunity, maybe a unique one… » Confirms Briatore in The Guardian. « As a rookie [new F1 driver], you must work in the first year solely for the good of the team… »

« A team is 1000 people who work continuously to provide you with the best single-seater. So you must respect it and set your ego aside! »

« The drivers should realize… you hear them say ‘my car’ but it’s not theirs. It’s a team effort and when I see that McLaren couldn’t even win the championship… it’s only worse for them… »

Briatore also believes that Hamilton was favored by his team over Fernando Alonso, who has since returned to Renault.

« [Hamilton] was born with this team. He is the result of the team’s hard work over 10 years, so it’s normal for him to be important for them, but what’s less normal is seeing him being favored. When he was on pole, the whole team jumped for joy. That was never the case when Alonso took pole as well [Briatore imitating timid applause]… »

The former Renault driver, Heikki Kovalainen, is now the number 2 driver at McLaren. The team has already warned not to give any special treatment. Mistakes allow one to progress… confirms the saying.