Ecclestone devalues Hamilton titles: "Took no real effort"

For Lewis Hamilton, there will be some pressure on the Grand Prix in his home country for the first time in ages. Where the successful Briton normally isn't put under a lot of pressure to win another championship, it seems that this year he will have a big challenge for Max Verstappen. Not many people would have predicted this at the start of the season, but for former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone it doesn't come as a bolt from the blue.

No competition

In conversation with The Guardian Ecclestone says that he already saw this coming. “I have spoken to lots of people about this and perhaps Lewis is not quite the fighter that he was,” said Ecclestone. “There are lots of occasions this year where he could have done better and he hasn’t. He hasn’t had any competition, the equipment has always been super, and he hasn’t really had to make the effort. But now maybe he is thinking that he better take it a bit easier."

Pastimes outside F1

Ecclestone also believes that the recent signing of a new two-year deal does not mean that Hamilton will complete those years: “At the beginning of the year I thought he would look to win the championship and then retire. But it appears not, even though I wouldn’t rely too much on contracts. He can escape from that. He probably had a look at the clothing range and music but realised that it is not as easy to make money there as it is in Formula One.”

Last year, Ecclestone and Hamilton got into an argument because Hamilton had a hard time living with a comment made by Bernie, in which the longtime F1 president had stated that black people are often more racist than white people. How Lewis will deal with Ecclestone's new comments we'll have to wait and see.