Mercedes AMG Petronas

Custom helmets for individual race designs are all the rage in Formula 1 at the moment, but Lewis Hamilton's latest, designed for the U.S. Grand Prix in Austin, is one of the more striking.

The 2008 World Champion is even ditching his traditional yellow colours for Michael Jackson-themed helmet.

The Mercedes driver revealed the new design in three tweets on Twitter, each time accompanied by the hashtag #smoothcriminal:

For the Austin race, i wanted to dedicate this helmet to my favourite artist MJ. So, here it is. #smoothcriminal #MJ pic.twitter.com/1jkKMOBQyU

— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) November 14, 2013

#smoothcriminal pic.twitter.com/1r2X6YXhf9

— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) November 14, 2013

#smoothcriminal pic.twitter.com/bpACQp1xIg

— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) November 14, 2013

Whether Austin and Michael Jackson has any great connection is debatable at best, but if nothing else it's going to stick out come race weekend.

For one of the most successful team principals in the history of Formula 1, the sun is setting on a glittering career.

Current Mercedes Motorsport boss Ross Brawn will quit the team at the end of the season, at least according to reports on BBC Sport earlier in the week.

Should Brawn walk away from the sport, he can do so with his head held high. He has been instrumental in the success of practically every team he has been involved with, winning constructors’ and drivers’ titles with Michael Schumacher at Benetton before bagging six consecutive titles at Ferrari with the same driver.

More success followed when he launched a takeover of Honda in 2009, winning both constructors’ and drivers’ titles in a team bearing his own name.

But things have not all gone according to plan so far at Mercedes, and the goal of winning the championship still seems a distant one given the dominance of Red Bull and the team’s well documented struggle with making the Pirelli tyres work.

Paddy Lowe, who arrived at Mercedes from McLaren in the summer, is seen as Brawn’s natural successor, as reported at the time by Autosport.

But whilst all the signs point to Brawn leaving Mercedes at the end of the season, there still may be a chance he will be persuaded to stay, and that is certainly the aim of non-executive chairman Niki Lauda, who was reported in The Times via Autosport that a decision had not been reached.

The speculation is total rubbish. The situation is absolutely clear. I spoke to Ross a while ago and we agreed that he will come back to me after the final race of the season in Brazil to tell me whether he wants to stay or go. I am trying everything I can to encourage and motivate him to stay. I am the one who asked him to stay. I want him to do it but it is not my decision, it is his decision. If he stays he will be team principal - nothing else - or he will retire.

Jenson Button, who won the title driving for Brawn in 2009, said on ESPNF1 that he would also be surprised if Mercedes let Brawn go at the end of the season as he is the “perfect guy to run a team.”

I think for any Formula One team Ross is beneficial because of his experience and he is a very strong character as well. I'm surprised they are letting him go, for me he's the perfect guy to run a team so I'm surprised to see him leaving the sport if that is the case.

It would be a loss to Mercedes, but it would not be a loss to the rest of us. I think it would be a good thing [for Mercedes' rivals]! Ross is a great team leader, very strong and a very confident individual. I think everyone needs someone like Ross in their team. I'm surprised to see he's leaving, but maybe there are some reasons for that - it's difficult to know what they are.

So what if Brawn does leave Mercedes at the end of the season and Paddy Lowe takes over as team principal?

If he were to stay in F1, working with Honda again would certainly seem to make sense. Brawn ran the Honda team after leaving Ferrari and the engine supplier returns to join forces with the McLaren team in 2015.

According to former F1 driver and Sky Sports pundit Johnny Herbert, the move would be a good fit for both parties.

Potentially, I think there's a better chance of success coming, especially when Honda comes. Then you have the relationship from when he was at Honda; of course, then it went to Brawn, but it was Honda who basically spent the money that got that package together. That success they had at Brawn, could be something through Honda, that they could actually bring together at McLaren as well.

Of course, Martin Whitmarsh is there at the moment. He's been criticised quite a lot in the last couple of years, but then things have changed: the Honda deal's come along and they've got a good aerodynamicist who's coming along at the same time. They say there are more personnel coming on board as well - we'll have to wait and see exactly who they are - but that is a possibility of course.

Whatever happens at the end of the current season, it is likely that Brawn will remain in F1 in one capacity or another. When racing has been a part of your life for so long, it is hard to get out of the system.

Should Lauda fail in his attempts to persuade Brawn to stay, a year away from the sport would give Brawn a nice stretch of time to re-evaluate his options and mull things over.

Because Brawn is a likeable character and comes across so well on television, I would be surprised if he was not approached by one of the big F1 television broadcasters to work as a technical analyst in the same vein as Gary Anderson, at least on a part time basis.

Then, with his competitive juices re-ignited, the lure of McLaren Honda may just prove too much.

For most people, the term "facing your Everest" is a metaphorical one. However, Mercedes Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton has revealed it is his intention to literally conquer the world's highest mountain.

The 28-year-old climbed the 4,095-metre peak of Mount Kinabalu in Borneo last week, according to the Independent, who quote Hamilton as saying that's just a warm-up for the big one.

I plan to climb a lot of mountains over the next five to 10 years, and eventually the big one at the end, at some stage.

I've climbed the 20th highest mountain in the world (Kinabalu), but I'm not going to climb 20 mountains - my legs would be killing me!

But I'll do Kilimanjaro, Mount Fuji, Mont Blanc and probably one in the States. I think Alaska is probably a bit too dangerous.

Despite a multi-million pound contract for racing, Hamilton is no stranger to trekking. Before the season began, he pictured himself on Twitter warming up for the campaign in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

His assessment of the task of climbing Everest, the world's highest peak, might be underestimating it just a touch. Speaking of Kinabalu, Hamilton added:

It was just hiking, like doing a million stairs, but it was pretty cool.

As for Everest, it's just something I'd like to do, but I'm going to do it for charity.

According to the Wikipedia page dedicated to deaths on Everest, there have been over 200 fatalities since records began in 1922.

Probably best not to bring girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger and dog Roscoe along to this one, then.

Lewis Hamilton painted a glum picture in his post-race interview with BBC Sport after the Italian Grand Prix, describing his ninth-place finish as the result of “a disaster of a weekend.”

While Hamilton was clearly a disappointed man and also said he “drove like an idiot” in qualifying, his overtaking moves during the race were a delight to behold as he carved his way through the field after an early puncture forced an unscheduled stop.

Hamilton surged past Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen and both McLarens in the final laps of Formula One’s fastest circuit, using his KERS power-boost system to good effect. But what is KERS exactly and how did it benefit the Mercedes man?

KERS stands for Kinetic Energy Recovery System and is a means of recovering a vehicle’s kinetic energy from the heat generated by the car braking. The energy is then stored in a battery or used to turn a flywheel for later use under acceleration, particularly useful for a Formula One car to gain extra speed on long straights such as those in Monza, particularly on the 650-metre stretch on the start/finish straight where Hamilton passed Sergio Perez and forced Raikkonen into an error before blasting past at Curva Grande.

System failures are not uncommon, however, and it was exactly why Raikkonen was unable to defend his position properly as he suffered with a KERS problem.

The system was introduced in the 2009 season but due to the expense of implementing the device, only four teams decided to employ it: Ferrari, Renault, BMW and McLaren. Now, it is used by all teams.

There are two principal KERS systems that teams can employ, electrical storage by use of a battery or mechanical using a flywheel. The electrical battery system is now the universally used method, utilising a motor generator incorporated in the car’s transmission that converts mechanical energy into electrical energy to be stored in the battery and released when required by the driver.

The mechanical system, pioneered by Williams back in 2011, captures braking energy and uses it to turn a small flywheel that can spin at up to 80,000 rpm, connected to the rear wheels, when more power is required.

When the driver needs an additional power boost, either to aid passing or to maintain a gap to a chasing car, the driver simply presses a boost button on his steering wheel to unleash an additional 80bhp. It can be worth as much as 0.3 seconds a lap—a lot in Formula One. It is also of vital importance at the start of the race when the device is already fully charged, allowing the driver an extra boost off the line.

But KERS is not merely important to help Formula One cars in a racing situation. Like so much other F1 tech, it is also used to promote the development of environmentally friendly and road-car-relevant technologies.

The flywheel device developed by Williams was fitted to Porsche's new 911 GT3 R Hybrid road car in 2011, and this year Ferrari unveiled a KERS system for a road car engine at last year’s Beijing Auto Show.

As of 2014, the capacity of the KERS units in F1 will increase from 60 kilowatts (80 bhp) to 120 kilowatts (160 bhp) to balance the sport's move from 2.4 litre V8 engines to 1.6 litre V6 engines.

Lewis Hamilton’s maiden victory for Mercedes at the Hungarian Grand Prix catapulted him firmly back into the world title race.

It also proved that Hamilton still has what it takes to mix it at the top of the table just as people were beginning to write off his title challenge and instead focus on Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso.

Many predicted a tough first season at Mercedes after he made the switch from his family at McLaren, but he can and will get even better in his quest for further world titles.

He will, of course, do this without the aid of renowned sports psychologist and Bleacher Report contributor Masefield, but for the sake of a bit of pre-Belgian Grand Prix fun, here are my five quick fixes for Lewis to become even better than he already is.

1. Become a professor

Hamilton’s fearless and aggressive driving style has won him as many critics as it has admirers over the years.

He exploded upon the scene in 2007 in taking the fight to his rivals, most notably teammate Fernando Alonso. But several high-profile mistakes and incidents in the subsequent seasons led to no shortage of criticism from his fellow drivers.

There was China in 2007, Monza in 2010 and then things came to a head in the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix when he collided with Mark Webber on lap four, and again with teammate Jenson Button on lap eight.

The incident came after Hamilton had also crashed out in Belgium, leading Niki Lauda to go as far as saying Hamilton’s driving could get someone killed, as quoted in The Telegraph.

But part of growing up is learning from those mistakes and whilst it could have a detrimental effect to alter a driving style honed from his early years of karting, Hamilton could take a leaf out of Professor Alain Prost’s book on the mental side and evaluate when to attack and when to back off during the course of a race.

2. Marry Nicole Scherzinger

The mental side of things also applies here and personal relationships cannot be underestimated.

During his torrid spell of accidents during the 2011 season, Hamilton admitted that there were times that his mind was simply not in the best place due to his breakup with Nicole Scherzinger; they split in November of the same year.

Reports in the Daily Star recently suggest the pair are now very close again and have even patched things up, with Hamilton even splashing his cash on a £500k engagement ring. 

Is it any coincidence that he’s suddenly coming back into some of his best form?

After winning in Hungary, Hamilton was clearly emotional and he dedicated his first victory in a Mercedes car to her as quoted in The Independent.

It has not been the easiest few months. It feels a little bit odd without that someone here - but I would say now that this is one of those races you want to dedicate to that someone. The thought in my mind through the whole race was of someone really special to me and I want to dedicate it to her. For the next few days, this will keep me riding high. It is a bit of a Band Aid that will cover me for some time.

3. Love your new family and spend more time in the factory 

A bit of an expansion on point No. 1, but no matter how good a driver you are, you also need a chassis that will suit your driving style. History backs this up.

Michael Schumacher struggled in his early years to make the troublesome Ferrari work for him and it was only through tireless hours of feedback and dedication working with his team of engineers in Maranello that things finally began to come right.

I’m not saying that Hamilton doesn’t spend a similar amount of time at Mercedes but his feedback and relationship with the team is of the utmost importance.

It’s only his first season at Mercedes but in many ways it’s his most important as this is where all the bonding happens. Is it already paying off?

4. Win more races

This may seem a ludicrously obvious comment but it applies to every sport. Athletes—be they footballers, golfers or tennis players—go through crises of confidence and slumps in form.

It happens to the best of them.

But winning breeds confidence and the more you do it, the better you get. The old sporting cliche "form is temporary, class is permanent" certainly applies here.

5. Join Fernando Alonso at Ferrari

I grant you this is tongue-in-cheek, but there is such a thing as becoming too comfortable in an environment. Hamilton had a cozy partnership with Jenson Button at McLaren and he’s now matched up against his good friend Nico Rosberg who he has known since his childhood.

But rewind to 2007 and there was a different intensity.

Not getting on well with a teammate can bring out the best in a driver and focus the mind like nothing else. Mansell vs. Piquet, Senna vs. Prost and more recently Vettel vs. Webber are prime examples of how those at the top of their profession go far beyond the depths of their reserves just to get one over their biggest rivals.

Of course, the Ferrari thing will likely never happen but do you think Hamilton gets the same pleasure from beating Rosberg as he does Alonso? I think not.

The team battle I'd been most looking forward to in 2013 was Nico Rosberg versus Lewis Hamilton.

The two good friends had come up through the junior formulae ranks together and were even karting teammates back in 2000 in the Formula A championship. For the record, Hamilton pipped Rosberg to the title.

Of course, Rosberg was already well established in the Mercedes team with three seasons under his belt partnering, and soundly beating, some fella called Schumacher. Hamilton would have to find his feet quickly in a brand new environment, but most students of the sport predicted an extremely tight battle. And that's exactly what we got.

Hamilton started the stronger, outqualifying Rosberg in Australia as the German's race ended in retirement with an electrical problem. Malaysia again saw Hamilton on the second row but with Rosberg two places behind him.

A titanic scrap for third ensued between the pair in the closing laps, just the kind of action I'd been looking forward to. Rosberg twice passed Hamilton, only for Hamilton to retake the position. But then, with Hamilton running low on fuel, Rosberg was ordered to hold station behind Hamilton despite clearly having the faster car.

Rosberg was understandably frustrated but, unlike Sebastian Vettel ahead of him, obeyed team orders. That's a gold star in his half-term report for being a good boy. Good guys, however, don't always win.

China again saw Rosberg outqualified by Hamilton, who stormed to pole. Still, fourth on the grid was no disaster until a broken rear anti-roll bar ended his race after his second pit stop. Another podium finish for Hamilton, and it looked like the Englishman was quickly establishing himself as the team's No. 1 driver. Certainly there would have been pressure on Rosberg to arrest the situation, and he answered his critics emphatically by taking his first pole of the season in Bahrain, a replacement gearbox meaning Hamilton started ninth.

But as Hamilton made ground on the harder compound as the temperatures receded to finish fifth, Rosberg backpedalled as Mercedes' rear tyre problems surfaced, his W04 munching the rear tyres as a four stop strategy relegated him to ninth by the finish.

Again Rosberg put his Mercedes on pole in Spain and this time it was alongside Hamilton as the team achieved its first front row since the 1955 Italian Grand Prix. But again the celebrations would not last until Sunday afternoon as those pesky rear-tyre problems surfaced again as Rosberg faded from pole to sixth and Hamilton from second to 12th. But their luck was about to change.

Like father, like son 

Monaco offered Mercedes no small amount of hope. Clearly the aero package was good judging by their stellar qualifying performances. And if they could get on the front row, Monaco's low speeds and lack of overtaking gave them a great chance of victory.

And so it transpired, Rosberg again heading the Mercedes front row lock out before taking a sublime victory 30 years after father Keke had triumphed at the same circuit as Hamilton lost out to the Red Bulls when forced to stay out longer than his teammate. For Rosberg, who lives and grew up in Monaco, it was a very special day, as he told BBC Sport:

It's amazing. This is my home, I've grown up here all my life and it's really special. The whole weekend went perfectly. I had a terrible start and I was close with Sebastian and Lewis but after that I controlled the pace. The car was really good, the tyres held on OK and that was really the key, so a massive thanks to the team. I'm ecstatic.

Hamilton fought back in Canada to take third from second on the grid as Rosberg finished fifth from his starting slot of fourth, but Silverstone was to be another red letter day for the German who benefited from the ill fortune of his teammate and Vettel to hold off a charging Mark Webber for victory and another joyful interview with BBC Sport:

Fantastic, a very special day. What makes it more special is that our factory is so close. We're progressing all the time. We're massively quick in qualifying, and we had the fastest car in this race. With Lewis, I feel sorry for all the British fans. It's always a massive disappointment but that's racing. Sebastian stopped, I won't lie, I wasn't disappointed by that one.

There was to be no such fairytale at his next home race in Germany, a misjudgement by his team in Q2 meaning he missed out on the top 10, compromising his race for a ninth-place finish. And while Hamilton cruised to a pole to flag finish to win his first race for the team in Hungary, Rosberg was left cursing his luck after contact with Felipe Massa into turn five put him on the back foot before an engine failure sent him into retirement late on.

The second half of the season promises much for Nico, especially if Mercedes have found a cure to their tyre woes in the form of the new-spec Pirellis. And congratulations also go to Nico and his longtime girlfriend Vivian Sibold on their engagement.

Nico's mid-season marks 

Temperament: 8/10

Qualifying: 7/10

Race craft: 7/10

Summary: Two excellent pieces of work so far, and, if Mercedes have their issues fixed, there's more to come.

Following on from his maiden victory for Mercedes at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton has seemingly launched himself firmly back into title contention.

We’ve known Hamilton has been a stellar qualifier for quite some time, and his four pole positions and a handful of front-row slots prove this. The problem is, his Mercedes W04 chassis has had a horrible tendency to eat rear rubber fast, the fast-wearing Pirelli 2013 tyres graining out of their optimum operating zone faster than the competition.

The result? Hamilton has been sliding back down the field faster than a harpooned hippo on a banana tree, especially in the hotter conditions where the tyres grain even more quickly.

Silverstone changed all of this. Hamilton was leading the race when a spectacular left rear failure scuppered his chances. We don’t know for sure whether he would have won, but when Felipe Massa, Jean-Eric Vergne and Sergio Perez suffered similar catastrophes, Pirelli were forced into a corner and had to strengthen their tyres with a Kevlar-belted compound.

And for Hungary, Pirelli reverted back to its 2012 specification of front-tyre construction whilst keeping with the 2013 rears.

Hamilton was pessimistic on race day with track temperatures soaring into the mid-50s and went as far as saying he’d need a "miracle" to win, according to BBC Sport. But the tyres worked perfectly, and Hamilton, once into the lead off the grid, was able to control the race and pass his rivals after his pit stops like no other time this season.

If we can make the tyres last here, we can do it anywhere I think you could tell I was hungry for it. I was going all out. I needed to get past those people. Usually I get stuck, today I wasn't having it, I was going for every move I had.

There are some clues as to why the new tyre worked better for Mercedes in Hungary.

A Formula One car’s chassis has to work in total harmony with its tyres, and much of the design is carried out with this in mind.

The Mercedes has always had a tendency for a more grippy front end than its rivals, and although this helps with cornering, it places a bigger load on the rear rubber. And when the rear rubber loses grip, the car will slide. This is why Mercedes have been quick over a single qualifying lap but have struggled in race set-up. The only exception to this is at Monaco, where speeds are much slower and overtaking is virtually impossible.

The 2012-spec front tyres introduced for Hungary, however, have a stiffer sidewall that absorbs less cornering force meaning a less grippy front end that is in turn kinder on the rears.

It all gives weight to the argument as to why the tyres contributed to Hamilton’s victory, but whilst Mercedes may have found a cure to its tyre woes, one swallow does not make a summer, and I still think the Englishman remains an outside bet for the title. Here’s why.

1. Horses for courses

You just can’t underestimate how important past success at a circuit is for a driver.

Certain drivers go well at certain circuits purely due to circuit layout and driving style, and it’s no coincidence that Hamilton has now won there on four occasions and leads the list alongside Michael Schumacher.

2. Tyres not the only reason

I mentioned before that teams are constantly tweaking a car’s chassis to make it work in balance and harmony with every other aspect, most importantly the tyres.

Mercedes also came to Hungary with other upgrades focused around the front wing. This may well have played a part on the high downforce Hungaroring circuit, and you can bet your bottom dollar that in the long break between races, other teams will be working hard in their respective factories to make upgrades of their own and evaluate why Mercedes gained in that area.

3. The points gap and the Sebastian Vettel factor

Despite Hamilton’s Hungary success, he still lies a mammoth 48 points behind Sebastian Vettel in the race for the title, and he’s also behind Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso in the standings. We all know what a good front-runner Vettel is, and there will be circuits coming up that will suit Red Bull just as much as Hungary suited Mercedes. The gap is simply too big to bridge.

So whilst Mercedes may have given Hamilton a better chance of race wins in the second half of the season, it’s hard to see it being a decisive turning point as far as the title battle is concerned. It’s a shame we have to wait three weeks until the next instalment!

Lewis Hamilton’s first victory for Mercedes at the Hungarian Grand Prix came in the nick of time.

Had I been asked to write his half-term report last week, Headmaster Masefield would have had to write "must do better." But the English driver pulled a stunning mark out of the bag in Hungary, and forced me to amend my previous appraisal to "close to becoming the star pupil."

Victory in Hungary means Hamilton is now 48 points behind championship leader Sebastian Vettel. And whilst I have pinned my colours firmly to the Vettel mast, there’s little doubt that Hamilton has been trying with all his might to wring every inch out of his Mercedes to stay within touching distance.

It looked a tall order from the outset. Here’s why.

He’s had to change schools

Towards the end of the 2012 season, Hamilton announced that he would be leaving McLaren, the team that had nurtured him through the ranks from childhood and given him his big break in Formula One.

McLaren was like a family to Hamilton and yet he decided to jump ship and move to the less fancied Mercedes. It was a move that raised no shortage of eyebrows. Like anyone moving to a different job, he would have to learn new company policy and meet new teammates.

Hardest of all would be getting to grips with a new car. What’s more, the team’s star pupil and Hamilton's good friend, Nico Rosberg, already had three seasons under his belt and had comprehensively outshone the legend that is Michael Schumacher. But Hamilton had other ideas. After all, he had to partner none other than Fernando Alonso in his debut season at McLaren in 2007 and darn nearly won the thing!

Pirelli problems on race day

Hamilton was fast out of the blocks in Australia, qualifying third en route to a solid fifth place and he again out-qualified Rosberg before scoring his first podium for his new team in Malaysia, the controversy of the faster Rosberg being ordered to stay behind Hamilton slightly overshadowing the bigger team order story at Red Bull.

All seemed rosy in China after Hamilton secured a superb maiden pole for his new outfit but an old problem the reared its ugly head, the Mercedes W04 chassis unable to make the softer qualifying Pirelli tyre compound last as long as its rivals on race day. Hamilton was passed for first, second and nearly third before hanging on for a second successive podium.

Spain compounded the problem, Mercedes again great in qualifying with Hamilton behind teammate Rosberg on the front row but the end result a puzzling 12th place that left Hamilton scratching his head. Monaco mirrored the qualifying of Spain, Mercedes again quick over one lap on the softer rubber but this time it was Hamilton forced to play second fiddle on team strategy, losing position to the Red Bulls when obliged to stack his pitstop behind eventual winner Rosberg.

Blow outs and bad luck

Canada looked like a track well suited to the Mercedes, with its long straights and shorter corners, plus Hamilton had won there three times. He would have been on pole too had he not misjudged the final chicane. P2 on the grid looked good nonetheless but when the sun shone for the first time on race day, Vettel was supreme and with Hamilton not entirely happy with his brake balance on a circuit notorious for punishing cars in this department, old rival Fernando Alonso blasted past with eight laps remaining to snatch the final podium spot. But Lewis was still fourth in the standings and getting better.

Buoyed on by a fervent home crowd, Hamilton took pole at his home race in Silverstone and duly shot into the lead, opening up a big gap on the chasing pack. Even at this early stage, he looked on course for victory. But on lap 8 his left rear tyre blew spectacularly, scuppering his chances.

Similar failures for Felipe Massa, Jean-Eric Vergne and Sergio Perez almost caused the race to be red flagged by FIA race director Charlie Whiting, but Hamilton drove a blinding race considering the circumstances to come home in fourth.

The turning point?

And so to Germany and Hungary and two more pole positions. But whereas Hamilton suffered a poor start and was always playing catch-up at the Nurburgring, Hungary saw his best performance of the year to date. The new Kevlar-belted Pirellis held up perfectly in the sweltering conditions and Hamilton was supreme on his three-stop strategy to secure his first win for his new team.

"We really had no idea we could do that well," Hamilton told BBC Sport afterwards. "The last 20 laps I was just managing my tyres and cruising. I think you can say I was hungry for it today."

And a hungry Hamilton could spell trouble for the opposition going into the second half of the season. We know how good he is in qualifying and if Mercedes have now got to grips with the Pirelli tyre in race conditions he is a serious contender.

Lewis’s mid-season marks:

Temperament: 7/10

Qualifying: 9/10

Race craft: 7/10

Summary: Getting back to his best. Two gold stars