Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsOpinion

'We should be pushing flat out the whole race' - Hamilton

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Lewis Hamilton believes the racing can still be improved in F1 because drivers should be pushing flat out for an entire grand prix.

The 2016 season has started with two exciting races, though the fight for victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix was over early as Nico Rosberg opened up a commanding lead following poor starts for Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen, while Sebastian Vettel retired on the formation lap.

With Rosberg able to cruise home, Hamilton says the front two would not have been pushing hard once a gap had opened up and he wants drivers to be pushing at 100% throughout the race.

"Things could be better," Hamilton said. "We should be pushing flat out the whole race. If the car is damaged that is different but we should be pushing the whole race.

"I guarantee Nico wasn’t pushing from lap 10 and Kimi 15 laps to the end Kimi wasn’t pushing either. We should all be a lot closer, there shouldn’t be an 80-second gap between 1^st and 7^th. We should be within 10 or 15 seconds. You can’t afford to slip up."

With a new aggregate qualifying system set to be discussed on Thursday, Hamilton says he will reserve judgement on any new format as long as it has been properly thought through.

"Ultimately it is about who does the fastest lap at the time. We can try it, don’t knock until it is tried but instead of throwing out ideas, it is perhaps something that is discussed and analysed by people that know what impact it will have.

"Ask the fans, they seem to have a good feel of what they would like to see."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.