Warning for Hamilton: 'Six months, or there will be criticism'
Pirelli
Interview
- Ludo van Denderen
Italy and all Ferrari fans around the world have been in a jubilant mood for weeks. After all, Lewis Hamilton has recently started his new adventure at the Scuderia after a year of waiting around. The world title and nothing less than the world title is what fans desire from Hamilton. But what happens if Hamilton cannot bring what is hoped for? Guenther Steiner has an idea.
Like no other, the Italian Steiner knows the passion of his countrymen, a passion that often knows no bounds. This became immediately clear when Hamilton drove his first metres in a Ferrari F1 car and there were thousands of fans cheering him on at the fences.
So an enormous pressure rests on Lewis Hamilton's shoulders. Steiner is convinced the Briton is not thinking about that, however, because he is firmly under the impression that his adventure at Ferrari will be a great success.
"You never have to think about that because you never going to do something thinking it doesn't work," the former Haas F1 team boss exclusively told GPblog. "If it doesn't work, you deal with it When you get there; if you go in that it couldn't work, you shouldn't be doing it."
"I say that because Lewis is well aware, I'm gonna make this work. Not to waste time thinking it couldn't work because that takes energy. So put the best in he can. Obviously, he thought long about this decision, and he said this is what I want to do, and now he has to follow through with it. That could be the thing that Ferrari is a world champion again."
Hamilton has little time at Ferrari
Yet Ferrari fans can also be highly critical at times when the reality does not match the expectations. Because suppose Ferrari and Hamilton are not a winning combination? Then the tifosi's mood will change, just as the Italian media can be adamantly judgmental.
Steiner says: "He will have got what you call it, a period of time. There's a word for it where nobody will attack him. It's not going to be two years, it's going to be six months."
"Then the pressure will start to come and the criticism. Everything he does will be second-guessed and questioned. But you've got a period of time where you can make it work, and you just need to focus on that to make it work."
"If it doesn't work, deal with it when you get there. Care, but don't deal with something before it happened," is Steiner's advice.
This article was written in collaboration with Norberto Mujica.
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