Lewis Hamilton has expressed a desire to see manual gearboxes return to Formula 1 in the future, along with the return of “old school” gravel traps.
Over the weekend, Hamilton drove Ayrton Senna’s 1990 McLaren MP4/5B in wet conditions at Interlagos. The car had an H-pattern manual gearbox, and driving it fulfilled a long-time dream of his.
Reflecting on the experience, Hamilton compared driving with a manual gearbox to the semi-automatic paddle-shift gearboxes that F1 drivers use today.
When asked about his heel-and-toe braking technique, since he would be using a full manual gearbox while current F1 cars use left-foot braking, Hamilton smiled and said, “I’m always heel and toeing, so it should be!”
He continued, “No, it used to be really good when I was younger, and when I did the [McLaren] MP4/4, I was able to do it back then.”
Hamilton added that he misses the challenge of manual gearboxes in Formula 1, saying, “It’s something I miss – I wish we had that in Formula 1. I mean, the two-pedal thing is just not exciting, and they need to bring back the H-Box. It was awesome.”
During the press conference, the seven-time World Champion was also asked if he felt Formula 1 had become more “aggressive” since he joined the sport. While he didn’t think the level of aggression had changed, he did note one significant difference in the sport that he would like to see addressed, if it’s safe to do so.
“The only difference is that the tracks now have these run-off areas,” Hamilton said. “I think when I joined, we didn’t have these big run-off areas, so when you first get in, you really had to build up to the limit. You couldn’t go beyond it, go off track and come back on – and that’s something I would say the thing I noticed the most.”
Hamilton explained that the introduction of large run-off areas, particularly around the time of drivers like Max Verstappen, allowed younger drivers to push the limits more easily without fear of damaging their cars.
“For example, around maybe Max [Verstappen]’s time or maybe just before, where they started having these big run-off areas, where the younger drivers were able to come in and really abuse those areas and not put the car on grass, for example. I think that gave them a real good cushion of bedding themselves into the sport and finding the limit.”
In contrast, he recalled that in the past, drivers like Fernando Alonso and others from his era couldn’t afford to make mistakes, as going off track meant being stuck in gravel.
He mentioned, “Pouhon, for example, Turn 10 in Spa, there used to be grass right beyond the kerb and gravel, which was definitely worrying when used to go into a corner like that.”
Hamilton said that the biggest shift in Formula 1 has been the run-off areas, and that it would be great to see the old-school way of racing return, with gravel traps, if possible. However, he acknowledged that it may not be safe to do so. “Maybe not safe, but we’ll see,” he added.
