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Lewis Hamilton once took a cheeky dig at Pierre Gasly, hinting towards the "extra seat" at Red Bull Racing while discussing Fernando Alonso's potential F1 return. This happened during the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix's post-race press conference.
Fernando Alonso took his initial retirement from F1 at the end of the 2018 season. His plans to return to the sport were in early speculation at the time. After the end of the 2019 Hungarian GP, where Lewis Hamilton emerged victorious, he was asked about Alonso's plans to return to the grid.
Adding to Vettel's answer, Hamilton mentioned that the sport needed the best drivers in the best seats, shortly before he was interrupted by Max Verstappen, who said:
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"The sport needs the best drivers in the best seats and there is still at least a seat available that’s good enough for winning and he’s good enough for winning so it wouldn’t be such a bad…"
Verstappen then mentioned that Alonso could speak to Toto Wolff and have him race alongside Hamilton.
"Maybe he could speak to Toto," Verstappen added.
Replying to this, Hamilton mentioned that Bottas is rather competitive, but Red Bull is the team with the "extra seat," seemingly referencing Pierre Gasly's seat.
"Valtteri’s great; Valtteri’s been winning. You’re the one with the extra seat, I would say," Hamilton concluded.
Pierre Gasly was promoted to Red Bull that year to race alongside Max Verstappen. However, his performance was extremely poor compared to his teammate. While Verstappen was scoring consistent top-10 finishes alongside occasional podiums, Gasly was falling out of competition.
The Hungarian Grand Prix was the last race he participated in as an RBR driver, following which, he was demoted to Toro Rosso. He currently races with Alpine.
As for Lewis Hamilton, he moved to Ferrari ahead of the 2025 season and recently took out the 2025 challenger, the SF-25 on the Fiorano Circuit.
Lewis Hamilton speaks positively after testing SF-25
The official F1 pre-season testing is scheduled for later this month and will be done over the course of three days on the Bahrain International Circuit. Prior to that, Ferrari took out one private filming day to test their new machinery out on the track.
Upon driving, Lewis Hamilton mentioned that he expected it to be more "intense."
"I anticipated it would be intense," Hamilton told the BBC. "It has definitely been that and more. Moreso because preseason testing is very short. Luckily it’s been exciting because we’ve had more driving."
"I’m not a big tester but it’s been fun to get in and experience this completely new feeling of car and engine."
He further mentioned how different the steering wheel is compared to the one he was used to at Mercedes.
"Getting comfortable in a different cockpit[…] he steering wheel has more buttons and lights than the one I’ve had in the past!"
Lewis Hamilton had reportedly asked for customizations in the steering wheel and the pedals when he first got into a Ferrari, piloting the SF-23 back in January.
