F1 news LIVE: Lewis Hamilton finds ‘hope’ and Carlos Sainz makes bold Ferrari claim

The next stop on the Formula 1 roadshow is the British Grand Prix and Lewis Hamilton’s hopes his home race at Silverstone will suit Mercedes due to the fast nature of the track.

That is assuming the team can keep the bouncing issues that have plagued much of their season under control.

“It’s better in medium and high-speed corners than low speed, but we have bouncing so don’t know how it’s going to be in Copse,” he said of his prospects for the British Grand Prix.

Hamilton heads to Silverstone positioned sixth in the drivers’ championship on 77 points, two places and 34 points behind his compatriot team mate, George Russell.

Fernando Alonso threatened a massive upset after finishing qualifying on the front row in P2 alongside Red Bull’s Max Verstappen but engines issues and a bit of misfortune with the virtual safety car cost the Alpine valuable time during Sunday’s race before a five second penalty for weaving dropped the two-time world champion down to P9 after the race.

“Yeah, we were unlucky once more with the VSC,” said Alonso. “I was just on the start-finish line when it came and I was just entering the pits when it ended so we decided to stay out, so I was a little bit unlucky there. But the biggest problem was the engine, we had an engine problem in Lap 20 or something like that.

“I was losing, like, one second a lap with the engine deployment, and from that moment we forgot about the podium, or retiring the car, we were just staying on the DRS train with the cars in front just to defend. But it was very difficult to stay with Esteban [Ocon] or Charles [Leclerc] because on the straights we were losing one second.

“I think this weekend we deserved better than ninth position,” he added, “but it’s still good for both cars to score points in the end. We ultimately lost a big opportunity to fight for a potential podium as I felt like I had the pace to do so.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has claimed that up to half of Formula 1 teams will breach the sport’s cost cap if governing body the FIA does not opt to raise it, and warned that the battle for the 2022 championship could end up in court.

All ten F1 teams are limited to an annual budget of $140m to run their 2022 season, comprising costs spent in every area including car parts, staff salaries, and shipping. The cost cap is designed to prevent teams from overspending and causing themselves financial problems, but Horner says the cost-of-living crisis and rises in inflation are an exceptional circumstance which mean the cap should be raised significantly.

“The way you design your car is within your control,” Horner told Sky Sports F1 after practice for the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal. “You are in control of your own destiny. We’re not in control of what’s going on in the world right now, with fuel cost rises, inflation going up to 11%. That’s a direct impact on staff, commmodities, supply of parts. I think it’s a case of force majeure. It’s not about income, it’s about this one-off effect of inflation that effects people.”

Lewis Hamilton took his first ever Formula 1 victory in the Canadian Grand Prix back in 2007, and the seven-time world champion was delighted to finish on the podium in Montréal after a difficult start to the 2022 season.

“Firstly I want to give a shoutout to the team back home; the men and women back at the factory are working so hard,” he told Sky Sports F1. “It’s been such a difficult year for me personally in the car.

“But this is beautiful for us, we’ve been working so hard. To have a strong race today gives me so much hope and confidence that we can move forward.

“There is potential in this car, even though it’s not currently where we want it to be. It has such a small working window, and if you don’t get it perfect it’s all over the place. That’s what we have to work through, but I think we did a really great job this weekend.

“It’s different to a win, but I think it feels as good as that in the sense that being on the podium in front of the crowd here is great. I know we can do better, I know I can do more, so we just have to keep working hard.”

Max Verstappen won the Canadian Grand Prix in Montréal on Sunday with Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton joining him on the podium.

That’s a sixth straight victory for Red Bull, and the full results of the race are below:

1 Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull)

2 Carlos SAINZ (Ferrari) +0.993

3 Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes) +7.006

4 George RUSSELL (Mercedes) +12.313

5 Charles LECLERC (Ferrari) +15.168

6 Esteban OCON (Alpine) +23.890

7 Valtteri BOTTAS (Alfa Romeo) +25.247

8 Guanyu ZHOU (Alfa Romeo) +26.952

9 Fernando ALONSO (Alpine) +29.945*

10 Lance STROLL (Aston Martin) +38.222

11 Daniel RICCIARDO (McLaren) +43.047

12 Sebastian VETTEL (Aston Martin) +44.245

13 Alexander ALBON (Williams) +44.893

14 Pierre GASLY (AlphaTauri) +45.183

15 Lando NORRIS (McLaren) +52.145

16 Nicholas LATIFI (Williams) +59.978

17 Kevin MAGNUSSEN (Haas) +68.180

DNF Yuki TSUNODA (AlphaTauri)

DNF Mick SCHUMACHER (Haas)

DNF Sergio PEREZ (Red Bull)

*Fernando Alonso finished seventh but after the race was given a five second penalty for weaving on the penultimate lap to drop him back to ninth place.

Verstappen was the dominant force all weekend in Montreal and looked set for a comfortable victory until a safety car after Yuki Tsunoda crashed out tightened up the field in the closing stages.

It ensured a 15-lap shootout to decide the race and – despite being on slightly older tyres, as well as his pursuant having the benefit of DRS speed boosts – Verstappen demonstrated his incredible driving skill to keep Sainz at bay.

The Ferrari had greater straight-line speed and the long back straight at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve enabled the Spaniard to use DRS to get up to the Red Bull’s rear wing but he was unable to get past at either the final corner or Turn 1 of the following lap.

And the Dutch world champion explained the precision required to not leave himself vulnerable to an overtake from the slightly quicker car.

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is having a tough season by his very high standards and after a painful, bumpy ride in Azerbaijan things looked to be getting worse during a difficult Friday practice in Montreal after which Hamilton described Mercedes’ W13 as ‘undriveable’.

However, what a difference the weekend makes. Hamilton qualified ahead of teammate George Russell on Saturday for the first time in three races then improved on his P4 start to claim his second podium of the year and his first since the opening race in Bahrain.

He eventually finished third behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz but the a level of pace he got from the W13 reassured him there’s more performance to be unlocked from the Mercedes.

“It feels great to be in amongst the battle,” said Hamilton, “For a second I was kind of keeping up with these guys. It’s given me and the team a lot of hope that there’s more to come from this car, the potential is there.

“When you get a full race distance you find a lot out with the car. A lot to take from today. Got really good reliability. Great work from team. Just got to keep our heads down.

“I know where I’m losing to these guys, so that’s where I’m going to focus on attacking to improve.

“It was honestly one of the best feelings of the year to be back, especially in Montreal where I got my first win 15 years ago and to be back up there, to feel the atmosphere, and the crowd was pretty special.”

Toto Wolff is pleased with the progress Mercedes have made in Canada this weekend, and believes Lewis Hamitlon and George Russell could be competitive enough to challenge for the win at Silverstone next time out.

“They were both very good,” Wolff told Sky Sports F1. “We showed good pace today. In terms of performance they were both good in the race on different setups. The hairpin is where hey put new asphalt and we suffered less from stiffness there. I don’t think that’s the case [that we’re back], we need to keep working.

“We need to develop the car in a different window than we had. We had it really low on the ground and that clerly wasn’t working. You can’t drive it there, so we lift it and lift it and lift it, but then you lose downforce. It’s always a compromise. We need to own the problem and that’s what we’re doing. Before you embark on next season’s car you need to understand the problems first.

“Within the team Lewis was always positive. How the two work together is astonishing. I’m happy for him because he had the bad luck on his side so far this season, and he could have been on the podium a few times but safety cars stopped it. If we are able to run the car low then we can be competitive at Silverstone. So let’s see.”

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has slammed the behaviour of rival Formula 1 team bosses as “pitiful” and “disingenuous” amid the row over porpoising at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Following the FIA’s intervention to solve safety concerns expressed by a number of drivers, most vocally Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, over the ‘porpoising’ issues, Mercedes has found itself in the middle of a heated debate.

During Friday’s qualifying they ran with a second floor stay as allowed by the FIA’s pre-event technical directive but rival teams questioned whether or not the team had had advance notice of the changes to get them ready in time – something which Mercedes denied. Then it ws claimed that the stay was actually illegal as the FIA had not changed the regulations to allow it and it was removed for Saturday after Mercedes said it had not delivered any improvement.

Wolff believes that rival teams are briefing their drivers to play down safety concerns so as to not encourage the FIA to intervene even quicker and the disagreements between Mercedes and its rivals are understood to have reached a head in a meeting of team principals with Wolff expressing his anger at others for playing political games.

“This is a sport where you’re trying to keep a competitive advantage or gain it,” he told Autosport. “But this situation has clearly gone too far.

“All drivers, at least one in every team, have said that they were in pain after Baku, that they had difficulty in keeping the car on track or blurred vision.

“Team principals trying to manipulate what is being said in order to keep the competitive advantage and trying to play political games when the FIA tries to come up with a quick solution, to at least put the cars in a better position, is disingenuous. And that’s what I said.

“I’m not only talking about the Mercedes: all of the cars suffered in some way or other in Baku, and still do it here. The cars are too stiff. The cars bounce or whatever you want to call it.

“We have long term effects that we can’t even judge. But at any time this is a safety risk, and then coming up with little manipulations in the background, or Chinese whispers, or briefing the drivers, is just pitiful.”

Max Verstappen’s Canadian Grand Prix victory is a sixth on the spin for Red Bull. That is their best run since Sebastian Vettel’s spell with the team, when he won four consecutive world championships.

The Dutchman now holds a 46-point lead in the drivers’ standings, with teammate and closest rival Sergio Perez scoring zero points this weekend thanks to a mechanical failure.

The Red Bull team are beginning to dominate this new technical era, they lead in both the driver’s and constructors’ championships and are showing no signs of their early season troubles.