F1 Australian GP LIVE: Qualifying start time as Hamilton makes pole admission

On one hand, it was pure elation. A member of the McLaren family for eight years, this meant as much to Norris as anyone else. He described it as a “perfect” end to the season, beating Ferrari to the championship by 14 points. And he’d need no invitation; he was going to get “hammered” later that night over the border in Bahrain.

Yet in the same breath, even amid joyous papaya-clad celebrations on the pit-wall, the boy from Bristol could not help but sample that bittersweet taste. “It’s been a special year,” he said over team radio, before adding: “And next year is going to be my year, too.”

“He just missed the apex, ran wide. Was probably a bit too gun-ho. It was a little bit overconfident and it will have knocked some of his confidence.

“He will lose some track time this weekend.”

“I remember the excitement, might not be the same for Kimi, being on track with Schumacher ahead of me, just followed him for as many laps until he came in. It’s very surreal and hard to believe it’s true, hard to believe what you’re seeing.

When I see the youngsters coming through, try to set a good example in what I do. I want to protect them from the bombardment they will experience, it can be a cruel world.

“They just need time, diamonds are created over time. I hope they have time and space to grow, be themselves, not have to conform and rush.

“Some drivers come in and are booted out straight away, I hope they’re given time. We all make mistakes in our life but we do it in front of the world. I hope you can take it easy on the youngsters, take it out on us!”

Lewis Hamilton has admitted that incidents of black footballers being racially abused in Italy did make him think twice when deciding to move to Ferrari this year.

The seven-time F1 world champion has switched to Ferrari after 12 years and six world titles at Mercedes. His first race in Scuderia red is at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on 16 March.

Hamilton is also F1’s first and only black driver and has detailed in the past the “traumatising” racial abuse he has suffered, detailing in 2023 that he had bananas thrown at him and was repeatedly called the “n-word” at school. He was also racially abused at F1 testing in Barcelona in 2008.

Serie A footballers such as Mike Maignan and Moise Kean have been subject to racial abuse in the past and Hamilton did admit that racist chanting at Italian matches “crossed his mind” when making the decision to move to Ferrari last winter.

The popular F1 docu-series has previously been boycotted by Verstappen, who refused to appear in his first title-winning season, due to Netflix’s tendency to manipulate storylines and drama.

On season seven, a clip of Verstappen’s cool-down room reaction to Lando Norris’s win in Miami is mixed in with his reaction at his home race in Zandvoort in the same scenario, showing a more despondent Verstappen, some three months later.

McLaren legend Mika Hakkinen has backed current driver Lando Norris, saying the Brit is “absolutely ready” to win the F1 Drivers’ Championship title this year.

The 25-year-old was Max Verstappen’s closest challenger in 2024 but made key mistakes at crucial times as the Red Bull star won a fourth title on the spin.

But former world champion Hakkinen was bullish when asked if Norris is now ready to win the title.

“Absolutely, yes,” Hakkinen told the Hindustan Times. “Why? Because I experienced many years of racing without success, but it was part of my development to become a good racing driver.

“You have to maintain your criticism about yourself. That way you keep developing and pushing. That means you are taking risks. Lando experienced all these elements in his career. He’s been taking risks. He’s been critical of himself. He’s been pushing flat out.

“When you’re not world champion, when you’re working towards that goal, it requires a lot of mistakes and stress. I believe Lando is ready. He is flat-out ready to achieve his goal.”

More from Toto, who says: “I don’t flirt outside if I am in a good relationship. At the moment that (a move for Verstappen) is not on the radar.

“I don’t like to shift my concentration away from these guys (Russell and Antonelli). I’m someone who sticks to what he says and this is the combination that I want to go forward with Mercedes. I have no other reasons to doubt that.”

Following Hamilton’s transfer to Ferrari, Russell will enter a campaign as Mercedes’ lead driver for the first time in his career.

And when quizzed about Russell’s next deal, Wolff continued: “We had a chat a few weeks ago about when the right timing would be to liaise.

“We’re going to find some time, I guess before the summer. We will do that in a timely manner, without disrupting the season.”

“No, I don’t think so.

“That would be ideal, what every team dreams of but at this point in the regulations, expecting that is incredibly naive.

“This season is going to be just as tight if not tighter than the second half of last year. We have a new set of rules next year, which will change the pecking order or gaps a bit.

“This year will be a competitive year of F1, as much as I’d like to have that level of success, it’ll be very very tough.”