Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/652704
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 13 MARCH 2016 Sport 54 FORMULA 1 Hamilton wary of 'impressive' Ferrari REIGNING World Champion Lewis Hamilton says he is wary of the threat posed by rivals Ferrari as he begins his quest for a fourth Formula 1 title at next weekend's Australian Grand Prix. Hamilton secured 10 victories en- route to his third crown in 2015, as neither team-mate Nico Rosberg nor Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel could sustain a season-long threat. However, the Briton says that he is taking nothing for granted as he aims to become only the fourth driver in history to win three suc- cessive championships. "The winter tests went fantastical- ly well, and our new car is absolutely incredible," Hamilton said during Mercedes' 2016 team launch. "I never thought that we would be driving quite so many kilometres in preparation. "This is a real team effort from all our colleagues in Brackley, Brix- worth and Stuttgart. Nevertheless, I'm expecting this season to be an uphill battle." Hamilton pointed to Ferrari's pace during pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as reason for his approach. "Ferrari has caught up and Nico is always a strong opponent," he ex- plained. "I believe that we have a good car, but Ferrari were posting some impressive times during the tests – both on the fast laps and on longer runs. "We are certainly in for a good fight, but after all that's exactly what everyone wants. In any case, I'm looking forward to it very much." Lewis Hamilton Red Bull boss's threat to quit: Mercedes and Ferrari too powerful, and it's hurting F1 Honda 'not satisfied' with new engine ahead of new season RED Bull boss Dietrich Mate- schitz believes Mercedes and Fer- rari's on and off-track power is to the detriment of Formula 1. The manufacturers dominate F1 results as the two leading engine suppliers, and their supply of units to customer teams has long been a point of conjecture. Mateschitz's Red Bull Racing made little headway on efforts to move from Renault to a current- spec Mercedes or Ferrari engine for 2016, with sister squad Toro Rosso eventually securing a deal with the latter, but only for an end-of-'15 unit. "Bernie [Ecclestone] is absolute- ly right in his position," he said. "We have the situation right now that the tail waves the dog. The power of Mercedes and Ferrari is not doing good to F1." Red Bull supports the notion of an independent engine in F1, flagged by Ecclestone and FIA president Jean Todt. That idea was shelved in January as part of ongoing discussions be- tween Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault and Honda on issues including the obligation to supply customers, and the cost of those deals. Both of Mateschitz's teams' cus- tomer contracts expire at the end of the 2016 season and he repeat- ed his stance that engine supply could drive Red Bull away from F1. "Everything right now is pretty open," he said. "We definitely will not fight for fifth in the next five years. If we don't get a competitive engine af- ter 2016 we have no choice but to consider our future. F1 is not the Tour de France, and we will for sure not play a supporting cast role." While Renault's progress with its power unit will define Red Bull Racing's season, Mateschitz paid credit to Adrian Newey and the team's new RB12 chassis. "Though the powertrain is basi- cally the same as last year, I got the impression that Renault is pushing hard with new people in responsible roles," he said. They show passion, a very professional attitude and a desire for success. The new RB12 is one of the best ever cars we put on track, it's a masterpiece by Adrian and his team. Our target has to become third in the rankings behind the two factory teams and beat the customer teams with those en- gines." Mateschitz expects Toro Rosso to join them in the top half of the field. "They have got an excellent car too," he added. "They should battle for fourth to sixth in the constructors' champi- onship though their engine won't get an upgrade this season." Dietrich Mateschitz HONDA'S new head of F1 pro- ject Yusuke Hasegawa admits the Japanese manufacturer is "not satisfied with engine pow- er" yet, but says reliability has been "our biggest improvement". Coming off a torrid 2015 cam- paign, Honda and its supplied team McLaren enjoyed a much more productive pre-season testing this winter though the two partners lost a day and a half of running due to hydraulic and coolant leaks. With Honda chasing both reliability and performance, Hasegawa explains the con- structor has already made sig- nificant headway in strength- ening its power unit, thus laying solid foundations to un- lock more speed. "The drivers have already said there is a performance gain, which is with the deployment of the harvested energy," he told F1i during an exclusive inter- view. "Also the reliability is our big- gest improvement, but we need more time to prove it. Especial- ly during the races, we have to prove it. "So far it is very good, we are very satisfied with our test re- sults but […] it is not enough to prove the race mileage. "Still we are not satisfied with engine power, and also the de- ployment and harvest. So we want to improve in those areas while keeping the reliability." Although teams have been given another four days of in- season testing in 2016, the op- portunities for Honda to further refine its engine package away from grand prix weekends are quite limited. "It is very difficult," Hasegawa commented. "But of course we have a dyno in Sakura in Japan. The tests are very important but we have to prove and check the performance on the dyno first. "It is difficult because after the tests there are very few op- portunities, but from an engine performance point of view it shouldn't be hugely affected."