F1 Insider reveals how Hamilton can get back on top after disaster year at Ferrari and lifts lid on team’s winter plans

LANDO NORRIS was crowned the Formula One world champion for the first time in Abu Dhabi.

The 26-year-old partied until 6am with girlfriend Magui Corceiro and racking up a £100,000 bar tab after beating Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri to the crown.

Norris is the first Brit to win the F1 world championship since Jenson Button in 2009, and first McLaren driver to do so since Lewis Hamilton in 2008.

But speaking to SunSport via find free poker, F1 Insider Richard Hopkins – former head of operations at Red Bull and team member at Brabham and McLaren – has given his verdict on how Norris stacks up against previous McLaren champions such as Mika Hakkinen, Alain Prost and Hamilton.

The season finale also saw the curtain close on Hamilton’s disappointing debut year with Ferrari, with Hopkins saying the seven-time world champion should be considering his future in the same way Michael Schumacher would be if the team were not listening to him.

Hopkins also lifted the lid on the F1 production cycle as the winter off-season gets underway and had his say as the sport says goodbye to DRS with next year’s new regulations.

How does Norris compare to previous McLaren winners?

“I think he’s slightly underrated. I think what we might see going forward now is a much more confident Lando Norris. He doesn’t necessarily have that killer instinct that Mika or Ayrton [Senna] had.

“Alain Prost was maybe more of a quiet achiever, similar to Lando. They’re just different. They’re different in how they go about it.

“I think Lando’s a better driver than people give him credit for. He did handle the pressure mid-season.

“He turned it around, and even in this race, he had a Ferrari breathing down his neck, and he handled that very well.”

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Lewis Hamilton’s disastrous season with Ferrari is now over. What methods have you seen other drivers use to reset in the winter following a difficult season?

“If you’re Lewis, you’re going to start thinking about what your future might look like. He’s hoping that Ferrari are going to hit the ground running in 2026, and they might. But equally, they might not, and they might be even more on the back foot.

“He’s always spoken openly about distraction away from F1. It’s one of his strengths – the recording studio, his fashion, everything else. Lewis has other interests outside F1. When he gives F1 up, he’s not going to be bored. He’s going to have stuff to do.

“So he’s going to take himself away from it. He’s going to think long and hard. Who knows, he might come up with a decision over the winter that that’s it, and he’s not coming back. But I don’t think he can leave now. 

“Unfortunately, he’s got to continue. He’s put himself into this position where he’s got to go into 2026, and there’s got to be a little bit of redemption. He’s got to see if what he’s hoping for is possible.

“We got some clues over the weekend, he’s been suggesting a change to Ferrari, and Ferrari haven’t necessarily listened to the advice that Lewis has been giving, which must be frustrating for him, because that’s exactly what Michael Schumacher did when he moved into Ferrari.

“He made it clear that he wanted to shape and manipulate Ferrari into the team he wanted it to be. Lewis has tried to do that this year, and he hasn’t necessarily got his way.

“So it must be frustrating for Lewis on many different levels. He’s going to take time out, get away from it. He’s not going to want to talk F1.

“Most drivers do the same. It’s an intense period for these young people, and they disappear for a couple of months, and they’ll be back before we know it.

“The season starts quite early again. It’s been a late finish to the season. Years ago, with sixteen races, you used to have four or five months off. Not now.

“It’s a couple of months, and then you’re back hitting the ground running. Everybody’s going to have to be on point for the new regulations going into 2026, and Lewis amongst them, I’m sure.”

What would Schumacher be doing in his shoes, do you think?

“Not a lot different. I think he’d be taking time out and questioning his future. Any F1 driver, whether it be Schumacher, Lewis, anybody, after a disastrous season, is going to be questioning their future. 

“We can all do it at work when things don’t go our way, and we get home and speak to our partner, and we question whether it’s time to move on.

“But more often than not, we find inner strength. F1 drivers don’t want to be seen as being weak.

“Lewis is arguably the greatest, and I think he will find inner strength, and he’ll probably have long discussions with Ferrari. We’ll see what they come up with in the next season.”

Can you take us into what the winter off-season looks like from inside an F1 team?

“F1 car development cycles were very, very different than they are today. Back in the 80s or even 90s, you pretty much had the same car that started the year as ended the year.

“That’s all changed. Actually, that’s something we did quite significantly, and we created a new paradigm shift at Red Bull in 2007–2008 with Adrian [Newey], developing at a faster rate than anybody else. 

“I remember in 2015, the bill of materials, the list of parts that go to make a F1 car, at the beginning of the year was about 20,000 line items, and by the end of the year it was close to half a million line items, which is a great demonstration of how development and innovation is managed throughout the season.

“We ended the season, then everybody took some time off, and you designed your car for the new season with a lot simpler, fewer components. It was very, very different, and you had more time.

“Nowadays, F1 is just a constant evolution. For the last four or five years during this ground-effect period, it’s been subtle changes from year to year. But this is a significant one. This is a real game-changer. So nobody is going to be having any time off. It’s the complete opposite.

“Certainly for design engineers and people at the factories — whether it be Milton Keynes, Woking or Maranello — during the season is probably more of a relaxed time than the off-season now.

“Everybody will probably have Christmas Day off, and that’s about it. Everyone will be working their socks off to get the new cars ready.

“And it’s not just one car they need to get ready – it’s multiple cars. The season, as I said, starts very early, so there is very much an overlap now.

“Whereas in days gone by, you ended one season and then there was a clear start with the new design and manufacture of the new car.

“Now there’s a huge overlap, and we’ve seen that this year with some teams stopping development because they’ve put all the focus onto their 2026 new-regulation cars.”

We also say goodbye to DRS. Are you glad to see it gone, and how do you think it will be looked back on?

“I think DRS had its moment when it was introduced. F1 was very processionary, if that’s a word, and it served a purpose. But I think in recent years, it’s been unnecessary, and we could have banned it a number of years ago.

“There was one race three or four years ago, during Covid, maybe San Marino, where there was a technical issue with the FIA and nobody could use DRS for the first 20 or 30 laps. It made absolutely no difference, and there was still overtaking.”

“It will be interesting to see what happens with the new aero regulations for 2026. No DRS, but there is an equivalent where drivers can manage the front and rear wings, which both move.

“So we’ve got rid of DRS, yes, but we’re replacing it with something else. It’s not totally gone. It’s still movable aerodynamic devices aimed at extracting greater performance out of the cars when the team and drivers see it necessary.

“As I say, I didn’t necessarily agree with DRS when it was introduced. It was manufacturing overtaking. We definitely saw overtakes happen because of the device, not because of genuine car or driver performance. It was a bit of a sticky plaster because of what preceded it in previous years. 

“But in reality, someone could have taken a step back and asked, ‘Do we really need this?’ That conversation could have happened four or five years ago, and I don’t think F1 would have suffered without it.”