Lewis Hamilton has denied Bernie Ecclestone’s claim that he would have preferred a sabbatical in 2013 rather than stay at McLaren.<\/p>\n
Referring to the 2008 world champion’s soured relationship with McLaren as he considered a move to Mercedes last year, Ecclestone said: “Lewis told me that he would have rather taken a year off.<\/p>\n
“In fairness to Lewis, he didn’t leave McLaren over money,” Ecclestone told business journalist Christian Sylt.<\/p>\n
When Ecclestone’s claims were put to Hamilton in Malaysia on Thursday, the 28-year-old driver responded: “I don’t remember that.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think I would leave this sport unless I didn’t have a good feeling about it, or a smile and an energy when I got in the car.\u00a0 I love racing, so there is no need to stop.<\/p>\n
“I am happy — I think Bernie has a better memory than me,” he is quoted by the Telegraph.<\/p>\n
Given McLaren’s early crisis in 2013, many now see Hamilton’s move to Mercedes as inspired.<\/p>\n
But although outwardly happy with his new challenge, team and 2013 car, Hamilton said he does not feel quite ready to win races or push for the title.<\/p>\n
“I don’t feel 100 per cent yet, and I think that showed in practice in Australia in the wet,” he said.<\/p>\n
As for the weekend’s challenge at Sepang, the Briton admitted: “I don’t think I am quick here.<\/p>\n
“Fernando (Alonso) beat me on this circuit in 2007, in only my second grand prix, and since then I have not had a spectacular race here.”<\/p>\n
\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lewis Hamilton has denied Bernie Ecclestone’s claim that he would have preferred a sabbatical in 2013 rather than stay at McLaren. Referring to the 2008 world champion’s soured relationship with McLaren as he considered a move to Mercedes last year, Ecclestone said: “Lewis told me that he would have rather taken a year off. “In …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[5262,5340,154],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18039"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18039\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}