Lewis Hamilton is clearly out of sorts. So I wonder if he might not be best advised to take the rest of the season off to prepare for his final fling at Ferrari next year.

It may not be in his nature to sit out a single race, but I can see how he might be tempted. And there is a precedent for such a move. It goes back to 1979 and the tortured season Niki Lauda endured at Bernie Ecclestone’s Brabham.

Lauda suffered 11 retirements from 13 races, and enough was enough at the Canadian Grand Prix. The great Austrian’s mood matched Montreal’s miserable weather.

After practice, he told Ecclestone he was ‘tired of driving around in circles’ and was retiring on the spot, not from races but from grand prix racing (later to return, in 1982).

Ecclestone accepted this, albeit with some reluctance given there were two rounds of the championship remaining.

Lewis Hamilton should quit Mercedes now – it would benefit him, Ferrari, and Mercedes

If he walked away from Mercedes, he could start working with Ferrari helpfully early

‘Well, ‘said Ecclestone, ‘in that case you better leave your overalls behind. We’ll need them.’

Ecclestone then plucked a replacement from the crowd, a young Argentine called Ricardo Zunino, a driver on a weekend off. He had tested for Brabham, and there he was suddenly about to compete in the Canadian Grand Prix – wearing Lauda’s race suit.

Hamilton, 39, need not make it as dramatic as that, but would a rest not do him good after 18 seasons and possibly one last push left in him?

Not entirely a foreigner to parnoia, he is likely to grow increasingly frustrated at what he will view as favouritism towards George Russell, who is outperforming him and who represents the future.

Given his impending move to Ferrari, Hamilton will be left out of all conversation concerning next year’s car development. (Ironically, he was arguably, and indulgently, allowed too much of a voice in creating this year’s jalopy, despite no strict engineering expertise.) If he walked away, he could start work with Ferrari helpfully early.

What would Mercedes do in this scenario? Move on. They could look for a swap deal with Carlos Sainz, Ferrari’s brilliant winner in Melbourne on Sunday 16 afternoons after his appendix operation, or blood a youngster, such as Kimi Antonelli, who, I am told, is due at the Mercedes wind tunnel over the next few weeks. The Italian is 17, racing in F2 for Prema, and on Mercedes’ junior programme.

Mercedes could blood a youngster such as Kimi Antonelli, who is on their junior programme

Hamilton is likely to grow frustrated with what he will see as favouratism towards George Russell, who is Mercedes’ future

James Vowles, then of Mercedes and now of Williams, brought in Antonelli and predicts he will be a world champion one day.

Perhaps Antonelli’s elevation now would be premature, but whatever happens it would serve both Lewis and Mercedes to cut ties sooner rather than later.

According to my millinery source, Adam Norris proudly wore the Pirelli cap awarded on the podium to his son Lando for taking third place in Melbourne. ‘It was on all the way via Doha,’ I’m reliably informed.

Melbourne to kick off next season

Dark glasses hid some dog-tired faces in Melbourne. I don’t believe in jet-lag, actually, but my denials of its existence faced a stiff examination last week. A fly-in, fly-out trip to and from the other side of the world for the third race of the season is lunacy.

Doctors and mechanics can agree on that.

Which is why it is fabulous news that the 2025 season will, I can reveal, start in Melbourne next season for the first time since 2019 (a result of Ramadan putting paid to the counter-attraction of the big-paying Middle Eastern states).

Melbourne would have staged the opener in 2020, too, but Covid for striking. The event was called off even though the caravan had already arrived in town.

Next season will start in Melbourne next season for the first time since 2019 and it has many attractions

Melbourne as the season-starter has many attractions: a brilliant week’s build-up with various events down by the beach. It is wasted otherwise.

Not that the race atmosphere wasn’t special this year. The crowds – 130,000-plus on three consecutive days – were record-breaking big. Albert Park is a tremendous setting, the organisation exceptional, the lively vibe friendly. It was also clear how much the demographic has morphed. The old petrol-heads mixed with the Netflix generation: women and girls as well as men and boys.

No wonder Stefano Domenicali, who loves the place, was smiling ear to ear when I saw him on the grid. He stretched open his palms in a ‘look at this marvel’ kind of gesture.

You can wound Mohammed Ben Sulayem, but you can’t force him out

Factions wish to bring down Mohammed Ben Sulayem as FIA president.

To wit, Susie Wolff has started a criminal action in France against the governing body relating to conflict-of-interest allegations the made on the basis she is head of the Formula One-owned F1 Academy, the women-only series, and her husband is team principal of Mercedes.

But history tells us that unseating Ben Sulayem is a fool’s errand. He was democratically elected in 2021 by member clubs – 242 motoring and motor sport members in 147 countries – and is pretty much invulnerable.

Trying to unseat Mohammed Ben Sulayem as FIA president is a fool’s errand. He is pretty much invulnerable

Susie Wolff has started a criminal action against the FIA relating to conflict-of-interest allegations

The organisation’s inherent attachment to their president was made clear in 2008 when Max Mosley, then a leader besieged by a colourful News of the World 𝑠e𝑥 sting, faced a vote of no confidence.

Of 169 delegates eligible to vote in that extraordinary general meeting, 103 voted in Mosley’s favour, 55 against. Seven abstained and four submitted invalid votes. A two-thirds majority, in other words.

Yes, wounds can be inflicted on Ben Sulayem, 62-year-old Emirati former rally driver, to destabilise him or curtail his authority. But, if he is willing to fight on, there is no conceivable way to force him out before his four-year term expires.

Volwes made right call to let Albon race

Williams team principal James Vowles got it absolutely right when he dropped Logan Sargeant for the Australian Grand Prix.

A lot of commentators rated the decision unreasonable. It was, as their argument went, unjust to hand the American driver’s car to team-mate Alex Albon when he totalled his own machinery in practice.

I understand that. It went against the natural order of things.

James Vowles was right to drop Logan Sargeant for the Australian GP – even if critics called it unjust

Alex Albon (right) destroyed his car in practice but Vowles let him take Sargeant’s car for the race – and wishes to rebuild Williams around Albon’s talent

Christian Horner’s accuser has threatened to take him to a tribunal if her appeal is rejected

But Vowles, in his second season in command of a Williams team still in need of resuscitation, countered that Albon was more likely to score points and so potentially elevate them in what may turn out to be a tight constructors’ championship, with financial implications, at the less salubrious end of the table. (Albon finished 11th, one place off scoring.)

Yet I think Vowles’ decision-making was informed by a deeper impulse. For it is around Albon’s talent that he wishes to rebuild Williams, his professed life’s work. While one feels for the accident-prone Sargeant’s fate, the fact is that he is irrelevant to that dream. By treating him ‘unfairly’, Vowles correctly focused his eye on his wider plan.

I believe Albon buys into the Vowles project.

The Christian Horner saga is far from over

A rare pause in the Red Bull saga. The latest is that the woman accusing Christian Horner of harassment is threatening to take him to a tribunal if her appeal against his exoneration by the team’s parent company is unsuccessful.

Going down this route would present wild risks to both sides. Plenty of dirty linen would be laundered in public. This isn’t over.