Hamilton needs to think F1, not music - Briatore

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Former Formula One team manager Flavio Briatore has said that in his opinion Lewis Hamilton needed to get his head back in the game if he wanted to retain his world championship for a third consecutive season.

Briatore criticised Hamilton for his 'playboy' lifestyle, suggesting that the driver was spending too much time on music and his jet set lifestyle, and that he needed to focus more on driving if he wants to hold off Nico Rosberg's challenge in the world championship standings.

"Rosberg lately seems to have put the head in place," Briatore told Italy's La Gazzetta dello Sport magazine. "Hamilton is 'a bit DJ, a bit rapper' - he has great talent, but if you want to win you have to concentrate only one thing.

"If I were him, I would work a little less on music and more on F1," he added.

Briatore's comments echo those of another Formula One icon Sir Jackie Stewart, who suggested this week that Hamilton now had the sort of "life that distracts you" and that he had lost focus on Formula One due to his busy personal schedule away from racing.

But Briatore's strongest praise went not to either of the Mercedes drivers but rather to Red Bull prodigy Max Verstappen, whom he said reminded him of Fernando Alonso - the driver that Briatore helped make world champion in 2005 and 2006.

"Verstappen is a phenomenon, a talent - it's like seeing Alonso at the beginning. It is useless to insist on the old, it takes youngsters such as Verstappen."

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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.