A Formula 1 stalwart claimed Lewis Hamilton has a lack of trust which is driving his concerns about an upcoming major rule change.
F1 is prioritising sustainability for its future and, as part of that, is phasing out the blankets used by teams to warm up tyres before cars hit the track. The plan is already under way, with the warmers now only allowed to be heated to 70 degrees Celsius, as opposed to 100 degrees a couple of seasons ago.
The plan was to axe the blankets entirely by 2024 to save money and energy. But whether or not that happens will depend on the outcome of a vote set to take place this summer.
While no-one opposes the sport's plan to become more sustainable, safety concerns have been raised about what might happen without tyre warmers. Manufacturer Pirelli has been developing new rubber compounds which should heat up quicker without the need for blankets, but tests so far have not convinced the drivers.
Hamilton is one of those critical of the plan, calling it a "pointless exercise". And Sky Sports pundit Martin Brundle last week came out in support of the Brit, writing on social media: "Doesn't make sense for F1 to ban tyre heaters. Cars will get crashed negating any cost savings and efficiencies."
But Peter Windsor, a veteran F1 journalist, believes Hamilton's misgivings might be rooted in his lack of trust in Pirelli. He said as much in a stream on his YouTube account when asked for his thoughts on the subject by a subscriber.
Windsor said: "If I said to you that we were in a tyre war at the moment and Lewis was not racing on Pirellis, but on Michelins or Bridgestones or something like that, and he was asked that question, I think he'd say: 'Bring it on!' Does that answer your question?
"I think, not to put too fine a point on it, Lewis wouldn't say this because like everybody in Formula 1 he's very grateful to Pirelli for the job they do, and a lot of the time they do a very, very good job.
"But to do the job they do they actually, in the minds of some Formula 1 drivers – I'm not sure the rookies because they don't know any better – do the job by producing quite difficult tyres that don't offer a lot of feel to the driver and go off quite quickly just when you don't want them to go off. Lewis is a purist as a racing driver in my view.
"I'm not sure he would describe himself that way but he is a pure racing driver. He's a touch-and-feel driver. And to a touch-and-feel driver – whether it be Lewis, Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, Jackie Stewart, Tazio Nuvolari, Bernd Rosemeyer – if you give them a tyre that's quite difficult to touch and feel and just sort of goes off a cliff at some point, they're not going to enjoy that aspect of their art.
"I think what Lewis is saying is: 'It's difficult enough as it is with the tyres in temperature! What would it be like without?' I think that's what he's saying. I don't think he's saying: 'I'm going to be better on cold tyres than Yuki Tsunoda', because he will be, but to what end?
"I'm not putting words in Lewis' mouth – I don't want to be misquoted – I'm just giving my opinion of what a driver like Lewis or Charles [Leclerc] or Max [Verstappen] would think about this.
"In the same way that they're all good in the wet, if you asked them right now would you like the Grand Prix to be wet or dry, they'd all say dry because it's actually quite difficult to get everything right, in the current era in which we are, in the wet. If it was another era – the '90s, for example – I think Lewis would be quite happy to have no tyre warmers."
