Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Monza, 2022

Hamilton jokes he may as well watch his iPad while stuck in Monza DRS train

2022 Italian Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton joked he was thinking of bringing his iPad to watch during the Italian Grand Prix as he expects he’ll spend much of it stuck behind other cars.

The Mercedes driver will start tomorrow’s race from the back of the grid due to his penalty for a power unit change. He qualified fifth, 1.3 seconds off pole-winner Charles Leclerc, but said there was no value in improving his lap time given his penalty.

“I felt generally positive,” said Hamilton in response to a question from RaceFans. “I got the most I could out the car.

“I think there’s still more time on the table, but it wouldn’t have put us any higher up. I think there’s a good couple of tenths there. But it was a fun session.”

Hamilton is concerned about the difficulty he will face making progress from the back of the field tomorrow as he expects to become stuck in a queue of drivers using their Drag Reduction Systems.

“I was behind Valtteri [Bottas] yesterday in practice and I couldn’t catch him nor pass him,” he said. “So I hope I don’t get stuck tomorrow.

“But I’m imagining tomorrow everyone’s going to be in a DRS train and it’s just going to be sitting there and just waiting for strategy and tyre degradation and those sorts.”

He believes F1’s official tyre supplier Pirelli should bring softer rubber for the race to aid overtaking. “They should bring like the softest tyres here to promote more pit stops and stuff. But they keep bringing these hard tyres so they only do one. It’s a one-stop easy tomorrow, generally and so strategy won’t do too much.

“But I hope that there’s Safety Cars and all those sorts of things. I’ve been so unfortunate with the Safety Car timings this year, it would be nice to have a nice SC offering tomorrow.”

If that doesn’t happen, Hamilton joked he might have to watch his tablet instead. “I was thinking of just taking my iPad with me in the race and when I’m in the DRS line just watch the new Game of Thrones,” he smiled.

“I’ve stopped watching it because I like to binge watch and there’s lots of adverts in the middle of it on fricking Sky and that’s no good, and then at the end you’re like ‘I want to watch the next thing’.”

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2022 Italian Grand Prix

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...
Claire Cottingham
Claire has worked in motorsport for much of her career, covering a broad mix of championships including Formula One, Formula E, the BTCC, British...

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11 comments on “Hamilton jokes he may as well watch his iPad while stuck in Monza DRS train”

  1. “new Game of Thrones” = “House of Dragons”

  2. Bet Sky will have been happy with that, their adverts (revenue income) being dissed in public by Lewis!

  3. What a great example Lewis is for FIA road safety & those running road safety campaigns around the world discouraging people from using their devices while driving …

    1. ..the man was telling a joke. I love this kind of Lewis, can be downright charming when he’s in a good mood.

    2. I hope you are joking, because it was very clear he was.

    3. Don’t be disingenuous.

  4. Or he can try , … you,… to actually race for once

  5. To moan about being dominated while he and Mercedes walked over the rest of the grid for 7 years is a bit rich.

    1. Mercedes didn’t “walk over” the rest of the grid for a good half of those years, in particular 2017, 2018 and 2021, at least. Let’s not even mention the many changes in technical regulations aimed at reducing their advantage, on both the engine and on the aerodynamic front. That’s the only reason why Max had a competitive enough car in 2021.

  6. The thought of him having to sit through the same adverts as me makes him appear slightly more like a normal person. I always assumed there would be a secret Mega-Sky ad-free subscription plan for the mega rich…

  7. @vinnie Ha! Me too. But alas it seems there is no platinum Sky subscription in the Sky for those that can afford it.

    At least he doesn’t have to listen to Crofty from where he’s sitting.

    Lewis seems to rarely joke. I can understand why – maybe in his position I’d do the same, people can grab the wrong end of the stick and criticise. He got burnt badly with the Ali G remark. (perhaps rightly, but it was a long time ago, so let’s move on).

    But I like it when he’s lighthearted. He often comes across as quite guarded in interviews.

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