{"id":18522,"date":"2013-06-13T07:08:03","date_gmt":"2013-06-13T11:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/?p=18522"},"modified":"2013-06-13T07:08:03","modified_gmt":"2013-06-13T11:08:03","slug":"hamilton-absence-not-cause-of-mclaren-slump-whitmarsh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/formula-1\/hamilton-absence-not-cause-of-mclaren-slump-whitmarsh\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamilton absence not cause of McLaren slump &#8211; Whitmarsh"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While Lewis Hamilton tries to up his game at Mercedes, Martin Whitmarsh insists losing the 2008 world champion is not linked to McLaren&#8217;s 2013 slump.<\/p>\n<p>Asked if needing to replace the highly rated Briton with controversial Mexican rookie Sergio Perez has contributed to McLaren&#8217;s problems, team boss Whitmarsh answered: &#8220;I don&#8217;t think so.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Lewis is a great driver and a good asset and we have not got him.\u00a0 But I think both our drivers are doing a good job,&#8221; he is quoted by Sun newspaper.<\/p>\n<p>Hamilton moved to Mercedes over the winter, but at recent races he has looked glum as teammate Nico Rosberg scored a hat-trick of poles and won in Monaco.<\/p>\n<p>The 28-year-old Briton, however, had a better weekend than Rosberg in Canada, finishing on the podium.<\/p>\n<p>He is quoted in the Independent newspaper as saying he was &#8220;determined to regain everyone&#8217;s confidence in me&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>But Mercedes insists it never lost faith in its new recruit.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t have that feeling we lack confidence in him,&#8221; team director and co-owner Toto Wolff said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think we are going to see great races from Lewis.\u00a0 I&#8217;ve no doubt.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #888888;\"><em>\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While Lewis Hamilton tries to up his game at Mercedes, Martin Whitmarsh insists losing the 2008 world champion is not linked to McLaren&#8217;s 2013 slump. Asked if needing to replace the highly rated Briton with controversial Mexican rookie Sergio Perez has contributed to McLaren&#8217;s problems, team boss Whitmarsh answered: &#8220;I don&#8217;t think so. &#8220;Lewis is &#8230;<\/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":[5262,5340,154,491,5284,34,5359],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18522"}],"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=18522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18523,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18522\/revisions\/18523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}