F1 CONFIDENTIAL meets BERNIE ECCLESTONE: Why Lewis Hamilton will never win another world title… and could leave Ferrari before his deal even starts

Bernie Ecclestone takes care of business at his farm, about 150 kilometers from Sao Paulo, or a 25-minute helicopter flight over the sprawling city from Guarulhos airport.

There are about 600 cows and cattle, 18 horses, six ponies and eight dogs. Koi carp swim in the ponds. There are dozens of chickens and swans. And a woman, Fabiana, usually known to him as Fabi. Plus son Ace, four years old.

But attention turns to another remarkable creature, 39-year-old Lewis Hamilton, the world’s most decorated driver, who is in a slump. His ride during the wet weekend in Brazil was hardly credible. He glided around where once he would have been the most confident protagonist.

Max Verstappen won from 17th on the grid in a surprisingly contrasting performance. The disparity raises the question on many lips: can Lewis, who joins Ferrari next year for £50 million a season, win the eighth world title he covets to elevate himself to a pedestal that surpasses even Michael Schumacher?

“I don’t think so,” said Ecclestone, who turned 94 last week but shows no signs of decline.

“I don’t think it will be easy for Lewis. Especially in that team. They will support Charles Leclerc. He’s fast and grew up there. They won’t dump him for anyone.

However, from Lewis’s perspective, joining Ferrari may not have been a mistake. He could no longer exist at Mercedes. Either he gave up, or they gave up on him.

“They wouldn’t do much to keep him, so he might as well go.”

Should Hamilton do the unbelievable and turn his back on Maranello before he even gets there?

“He would have to forego a lot financially,” Ecclestone said. ‘It’s a big deal he’s got, although I suspect the bonus clauses in his contract are there to make him feel good rather than reality.

“For John Elkann, the guy who runs it, it was a big ego thing. He thought he had captured the greatest man the world had ever seen. When he signed it, there was nothing to indicate he was wrong in that assessment. Whether he is still happy with that is another story. Only time will tell.

“If Lewis is fading, which I don’t like to see, he should go away and do something else and do a good job at it.

“He’s part of the older generation now – and didn’t he say he wanted to hear less from them?”

That was a reference to Hamilton complaining a few years ago that the likes of Ecclestone and Sir Jackie Stewart should keep their opinions to themselves.

Ecclestone has attended just a handful of races a year since handing the sport over to Liberty Media, the US conglomerate, in 2017. However, he was in Sao Paulo last weekend, when Verstappen all but wrapped up the title with his eternal drive. .

Ecclestone sat down at Interlagos for a friendly chat with Verstappen’s father Jos, applying some balm to the often stressful relationship between Verstappen Sr and Red Bull Christian Horner. It did something good.

Ecclestone is delighted with Verstappen’s success. “I don’t know if we’ll see another Max,” he said. ‘Max is a special guy. He is a racer – both in the dry and in the rain. He is so mentally strong. He always wants to win.’

The biggest ever?

“I think Alain Prost was as good as there was,” he said. ‘He could never get help. From the garage or the pits or via the radio. From the moment the flag fell until it was waved at the end, he was on his own. You have to take all these things into account.

‘Jochen Rindt was really talented, a special guy like Max. It’s impossible to pick just one – these are different times – but Max is super good, 100 percent.’

A look back from 2008

Felipe Massa is co-owner of the excellent restaurant Beefbar in one of the green suburbs of Sao Paulo.

I went there recently and who should be sitting on an indoor table than Timo Glock, whose Toyota was the car for Lewis Hamilton before the Brit made the decisive pass in the final round of the 2008 world championship at Interlagos.

As far as I know, there was no retaliatory poisoning.

Piquet returns

Spotted in the paddock of Sau Paulo, Nelson Piquet. The three-time world champion was banished from the sanctum of F1 in 2022 over racist comments about Hamilton, but he secretly returned to the Red Bull camper to watch his daughter’s friend Verstappen triumph.

New hope for Sauber

Speaking of dinner in Sao Paulo. At the table next to me last night was Mr. and Mrs. Ecclestone and I was Brazilian Formula 2 leader Gabriel Bortoleto. He and Bernie chatted heartily.

Without any connection, Bortoleto was probably this week allocated a seat at Audi-owned Sauber for next year. At the age of 20, he represents new hope for the team that is leaving Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu behind.

Bortoleto, who has been released by McLaren, will drive alongside Nico Hulkenberg, a survivor at the age of 37.

Warm applause broke out as we stood up to leave the restaurant. For whom? Mr. E or our fellow guests, Christian Horner and Sebastian Vettel? I told them that the guests clearly had to be F1 Confidential readers.

Can he see clearly?

A reader writes a theory to explain Hamilton’s strangely faltering performance in rainy Sao Paulo.

The letter is private, so I won’t name the correspondent, but the gist of his argument is worth repeating. It is that in the dim light, Lewis’s 39-year-old eyes were to blame.

He mentions the lens muscle of the eye losing its elasticity and not focusing fast enough, affecting people like downhill skiers and racers. This, the argument goes, affects braking distances and the perception of cornering.

I will seek further optometric advice and report back.

Safety first

A ridiculous aspect of last Sunday’s race. A safety car was deployed for no other reason than that it was raining, albeit quite heavily. At the time there were only five cars on wet tires; the rest on intermediate products.

So it was too wet for racing, but not wet enough for the most extreme rubber? Work that out.

An ode to an icon

There is a lot of talk about Schumacher, Senna and Hamilton finding parallels with Verstappen’s astonishing drive. These are all appropriate comparisons.

But a word for a British hero who was the best driver of the day for a short but brilliant period. In 1976, in such poor conditions, Niki Lauda gave up a shot at the world title, fearing it would be ‘madness’ to continue, James Hunt rode to victory in the rain-swept foothills of Mount Fuji.

We salute James, who passed away at the age of 45. He would be 77 now, but he wasn’t necessarily suited for longevity. His memory and actions from 1976 live on.