When the wheels come off a finely tuned machine, the fall is spectacular. The Mercedes AMG F1 winning outfit has collected 8 consecutive constructor titles since 2014, but at present they look a shadow of their dominant selves.
In yesterday’s qualifying in Imola, Lewis Hamilton scraped through Q1 by just 4/1000th of a second and was lying P13 behind his team mate in Q2 after an unimpressive first run.
Then came a red flag and following that – the rain. Hamilton climbed out of his cockpit with about 25% of Q2 left.
Before Hamilton even removed his helmet TV pictures showed him speaking with Wolff who was clearly frustrated with his driver.
A sullen Lewis Hamilton was asked about the tete-a-tete with his boss and replied sullenly, “It’s all internal stuff. I’ll not share that…… It is what it is”.
Prior to practice 2 this morning, Lewis’ championship winning ex-teammate was asked for his opinion on this confrontation knowing both the players well from his time in the Mercedes team.
“Toto was annoyed with something Lewis had done”, going on to suggest it could be Lewis “complaining on pit radio that they didn’t follow his thoughts on strategy.”
This has been a hallmark of Hamilton’s Mercedes career. He consistently challenges the teams strategy calls and tyre choices, clearly delighted if they work out but not so when the gamble goes wrong.
The biggest mistake Mercedes made was in Abu Dhabi 2021.
They had the chance to put Lewis on fresh tyres behind the safety car with 5 laps to go and even if Verstappen had then stayed out Hamilton would have been in the position Max found himself in.
1 lap to go, Verstappen leading but Hamilton would have been on fresh tyres easily capable of making the pass, winning the race and the title.
Rosberg observed further that with the time left in Q2, “there was a 1% chance they could have done something”. But Lewis had left the car.
Following Mercedes AMG F1 “worst qualifying for 10 years”, Rosberg believes “tension is going to build internally” within the team and Lewis behaviour will make matters worse.
“Blaming each other… it’s your fault…. It can happen very quickly and you spiral downwards” observed Lewis’ former team mate.
Oh wow. And I just read a Steve Hamfosi comment that this site was becoming more neutral. 😂😂😂😂
Clearly more people recognize the real SLH for what he really is. Take away the best car and there is not much left.
lulled him in with that unflattering photo of Max 😉
SLH would easily beat any driver on the circuit in any conditions if driving the EXACT SAME car they were.
Rubbish. He can’t even beat his up and coming team mate. 4 races and George is 3-1. SAME CAR!!!
Exactly
He was P13 qualy. And P14 in the sprint. Also beaten by his upstart team mate.
You can say that about any driver! What a stupid comment.
That sums up Duckey, brains of a starfish, he still thinks the world is flat😂
Nice call Judge but there isn’t a photo of Max that isn’t unflattering, he is so ugly and would remain a virgin until he was my age if he wasn’t an F1 driver. I’m still not sure you and Duckey aren’t the same person given Duckey’s history of inventing people but I’ll indulge you for now. I was talking about your offer, if it was valid, to let me post articles on this site and if I took you up on your offer I think Duckey would burst into flames. If it wasn’t valid I think without other people like me posting your site, your site would shrivel up and die, Lewis hating sites have no future. Duckey’s infatuation with Lewis having the best car could end up on his gravestone as he says it so much as has no imagination and is a true mantra for the Lewis hating fraternity that wouldn’t know a race track from the M25. What is really sad is there are real racing fans on this site that talk about real F1 racing and it is interesting, all Duckey’s hatred does is drag it into an area most people aren’t interested in and I will personally buy http://www.DuckeyIsAMoron.com just to get him his own site where he can pedal his own Lewis hating crap on his own. You have a great site here Judge but make it about racing and less about Lewis hatred and you could have a great debating site, people like Duckey are like the crazy guy on the bus, they are funny for a minute then just really annoying.
Steve, I’m personally challenging you to write articles for the site. If you do, I will also commit to writing once again.
If you put my name into search, you will see quite a number of articles I wrote some years ago.
TheJudge13 always invited people to write for the site, opinion pieces, historical, technical etc and it’s USP was a site for the fans by the fans.
Looking forwards to it 😉
Hi Carlo, just to let you know this is Steve. I’ve been banned from this site for asking probing questions about whether firstly Judge is actually Duckey and secondly why the Hamilton hatred? As they seem to accept Schumacher, Max and so on so is it LH’s colour, you have to ask, otherwise what is it he won so many times but then so did Schumacher? Also, especially as the hatred is so vitriolic.
Anyway. I just wanted you to know, this site is toxic and so I’ve found a couple of other sites which my wife is much happier about but I will miss winding Duckey and the other trolls up but they make big enough fools of themselves without my help.
You dominate the comments too much – and put others off from saying their bit calling people names. Tone it down and you can stay
Prove it then and put my posts back, they had some good content although you may not like it and I don’t post any more than Duckey does! You were only asking me to write for you a couple of days ago!
I don’t need to prove it. I’m The Judge 🙂
Persistently calling people names is not acceptable and anyone else making a habit of this will experience the same sanctions.
Hey Steve. You’re not an unintelligent person. Put your thoughts down in articles and we’ll publish them
But I have to tell you, being wrong is your privilege.
Who cares what Lewis likes…..and opinions of others
On another note not concerning http://www.DuckeyIsAMoron.com I’m seriously concerned about Hamilton given his qualifying today. My friends at MB are saying nothing but there is a serious concern about Hamilton right now. Firstly, please don’t quote anything from that treacherous waste of space Rosberg. Hamilton has made his feelings quite plain whenever Rosberg tries to talk to him he ignores him. Instead of retiring and buggering off he still hangs around the pits for his ‘experience’ having been gifted his title like Max. Rosberg couldn’t beat Lewis in karting or F1 but strangely his car was 100% reliable when Lewis car kept breaking down and then when it was working and Lewis tried to overtake Rosberg drove into him. What champion has ever retired after winning the championship, the whole thing stinks and I know for a fact Lewis wanted to speak out but was made to sign an NDA preventing him doing so. The truth will out one day but Rosberg was no more a champion than Max was.
As for Lewis health he is really not himself and there are many concerns about how he is behaving, the fight with Toto is just the tip of the iceberg. I honestly think he would have been better off taking a break this year, the car being useless isn’t helping and he is way off the sharp driver we all know. What FIA did to him last year is still taking it’s toll but Lewis won’t admit to it and insists he is fine but people that know him, know he isn’t. The FIA should hang their heads in shame after last season and it would be a great shame if his last season was struggling to stay ahead of the back markers but that is the reality of it and Lewis needs to either get his head on straight or leave but he cannot continue like this. Before the Lewis haters all start saying he should retire, I would remind them that he came from way back last year and beat their hero hands down until Masi got involved. He is still capable of beating Leclerc and Max but not like he is right now and MB have let him down badly and not for the first time either, if I was Lewis I would be bloody furious too.
Utter rubbish. Hamilton had his year prior to Rosberg’s title where reliability was hugely in his favour and had it been equal Rosberg would have won.
Lewis lost out to Jenson over 3 seasons – but you forget that.
He is not a GOAT, just a very luck boy – to coin Monty Python
I’m afraid not Judge, you are way off this time. In the season prior to 2016 when Rosberg was handed his title and then promptly buggered off! In the previous season LH had 10 wins and 11 poles compared to Rosberg’s 6 wins and 7 poles. Rosberg had 2 DNF to LH’s 1 and LH had already won the title by the time of Rosberg’s 2nd DNF finishing nearly 60 points ahead. Rosberg was beaten out of site and mostly finished in the top 3 with no more mechanical issues than Hamilton. Compare that to 2016 when Hamilton had 10 wins and 12 poles compared to Rosberg’s 9 wins and 7 poles. Rosberg only had 1 DNF when he deliberately steered into LH finishing his race also in the infamous ‘I did not steer into Lewis’ incident where his own video showed him doing just that. Apart from that no mechanical issues. LH however, suffered a number of mechanical problems with issues in China dropping him to 7th, software issues in Europe dropping him to 5th, more engine problems in Singapore where he did well to finish 3rd and finally a total engine failure in Malaysia for a DNF. LH was leading the championship and was by far the better driver but engine problems that haven’t occurred before or since along with a string of bad pit calls torpedoed his chances but it still went down to the final race where Rosberg basically just needed to finish to win. I know from people who work at MB that LH was incandescent and had many shouting matches with the team and was heard to say ‘the truth will out’ and in an unprecedented move he was made to sign an NDA to continue as a MB driver. Then Rosberg resigns, does that sound normal to you??
Also, Jenson Button only beat LH once not three times in 2009 when LH had 5 DNF’s compared to 1 for Jenson and LH had his worst ever season in F1. It is also widely known that Jenson hated LH has he didn’t like getting beaten by his team mate who was very cool about it. Jenson has since written a book rubbishing Lewis and has constantly said that LH isn’t the GOAT and also that Max is way better. It seems his bitterness knows no bounds and probably hates LH more than you Judge and Duckey. 😊
So true about Rosberg. Monaco went down the side road to invalidate Hamiltons quality lap. Run him off the track twice. Basically crap tactics to win the title. Hamilton should have 9 by now if not for the dubious tactics of Rosberg & Mass.
Then again. Had Hammy’s best mate Timo Glock not capitulated in Brazil on the last corner. Hammy would now have 6.
Ifs buts and maybe’s
I really don‘t understand how people have sympathy for Norris being on the wrong tyre in Russia and think it was understandable Vettel being all over the place in Turkey when being wrongly pitted for slicks, yet suddenly judge Glock by different standards (plus forget that Vettel also overtook him as well a few corners before because he was on the wrong tyre for that weather).
Quite often, the same people who criticise Glock are the same ones who criticise Petrov for NOT “capitulating” when Alonso was behind him in 2010.
Come on Judge you are letting your Hamilton hatred cloud your judgement here. People in glass houses Judge, I don’t think claiming Timo helped Hamilton was anywhere nearly as bad as Schumacher’s son and Max’s boyhood mate being involved in the incident which caused Latifi to crash in Abu Dhabi which also conserved his dads record but I didn’t believe that any more than Timo helping Hamilton.
You clearly know nothing about racing. In Abu Dhabi, staying out was the right call – You want track position. The strategy didn’t fuck HAM, Masi did and it was documented by the FIA.
Clearly my 40 years of F1 has taught me – if a team gets into a strategy fix mentality – it goes wrong. And the actual answer was track position -as per the Mercedes strategy playbook for years -was not in that case the right answer. Fresh tyres and P2 at the restart WAS! History declares the right strategy.
The ‘should have changed for tyres’ excuse has been part of the Lewis hating and Max fans playbook ever since Abu Dhabi and is total crap! You should know better Judge with your experience but yet again your hatred for Hamilton clouds your judgement. I raced cars from karts, single seaters to BTCC with an ARDS Int B licence. In that time I learnt a lot from ex racing friends some of whom were ex F1 and one thing you don’t do with a couple of laps to go behind a SC is come in for tyres, why would you give up your position with the race virtually over, you stay out and conserve your position. RB being desperate however, played the do the opposite of Lewis card with Horner saying ‘we need a miracle’. He then proceeded to badger Masi to try and give one green lap which would have made no sense but Horner knew on fresh tyres it gave Max a chance but Masi did more than that and only un-lapped the cars between LH and Max as if he done as the rule book states and un-lapped all cars Max would have had no chance. That left Max on LH backside on fresh tyres leaving LH a sitting duck. I would have been too embarrassed to collect that trophy but Max isn’t like normal people.
So would all you Max fans and LH haters give it up with the tyre strategy crap, LH was robbed by Masi, Max didn’t deserve to win and will forever be known as the ‘Human Error’ champion and rightly so.
For someone who is supposed to be so much of an expert and knowledgeable about Formula 1 (and other forms of driving) why wasn’t Lewis made to give the place back at the start to Max as it was quite clear he (Lewis) never had any possible chance in that S bend of getting past him. So what did Lewis do he went way to the right and came out well ahead of him. If you don’t believe me try watching the race again. As for the British Grand Prix that was well and truly Lewis’s fault as again he should have known where Max was going otherwise why was he given a ten second time penalty.
Exactly. This “Judge” guy..my word even the title drips in self indulgence… uses this site purely to dish out shade against Hamilton. It’s like cheap shallow chequebook “journalism” for the sake of ego.
Real fans of this sport know what went on last year, an FiA chook raffle, and the huge reset of regulations (the second major clear out since the Hybrid era) will always cause consequences through the teams. To speculate about what happened in a convo between team principle and the driver for the sake of pouring fuel on a fire continues the pathetic diatribe here
Thank you for the several minutes it took you to comment. REAL FANS of this sport know that no team has been allowed to veto rule changes for such an extended period and thus maintain the status quo. Mercedes finally has their come uppance, A weak FIA president combined with a transition in the commercial rights owners has seen F1 drift for far too long.
Again, Mercedes conservative “track position” is everything” strategy of James Vowels backfired in AD and the result was for all to see. A Lost DWC.
They could have pitted Lewis and taken their chances on the restart – as clearly Red Bull would have then stayed out.
But they didn’t. And the history books write the name of the 2021 Champion.
Hamilton is rightly annoyed by the shit car he has been given
All great F1 drivers have driven shit cars
I agree with judge. All drivers been given bad cars. Some drivers work with the team to resolve issues. Some drivers shout and complain at their team. Some even get out with 25% of a qualifying remaining. Which one do we have here?
Max hasn’t, why is that I wonder?
Max did several years in toro roso which were mediocre cars at best in those days. Max pulled great results out of them however they had never had before. But everything not LH and Merc was in your blind spot I guess
I state something about cars and Steve starts about experience… stick to knitting Steve because you know sod about reading
When asked by the media what that was about. Hamilton replied in house stuff. Of course 7 times world champion and 8 times constructors champions will not be happy. But we don’t actually know what was said. All speculation again. As for Hamilton in an ordinary car he would not be champion. We can say the same for Verstappen,MSC anyone. Even the same can be said for Leclerc this season when he becomes champion. But those who understand F1 know that to develop a good car it takes a team and drivers to help make it that fast. Not all down to luck. If we go into last season and Crastappen had the better car but couldn’t win a world title without help. Ask the FIA and the enquiry. So just shows not always the fast car that wins. As for their team mates why did RB not finish 1-2 all season. Because one drives better than the other. If all cars were equal which we will never see ever. Am sure Hamilton would be up there with a handful of other drivers and am sure Russell and Norris would be there.
Given Max had more poles than anyone in 2021 along with more points lost outside his control than Hamilton, the comment about the FIA is unfair. Further, Ferrari have peaked early and given today’s performance they have an uphill task to beat RBR over the season
Not sure Ferrari have quite peaked early, as their car is still porpoising quite dramatically and is possibly losing a bit on the straights as a result, whereas the Red Bull looks far more solid.
So if Ferrari can sort the porpoising out without comprising their performance in the twisties, that would perhaps nullify Red Bull’s straight line advantage.
Peaked early Judge?
They’re still running the car as it was unveiled pre testing, no updates. You may find Red Bull’s historic development spend will come to a grinding halt quicker than Ferrari.
So Max gained ONE point over LeClerc and Red Bull TWO over Ferrari…
Long season judge
I agree Carlo but you are up against a huge Red Bull and Max bias here, Ferrari peaking early did give me a good laugh. Ferrari have spent millions before this season and it has been paying off and as you say it is a long season and all teams have to deal with issues. Ferrari still hold a commanding lead and they have the resources to iron out any issues and they have a sound platform and that’s what is important. Red Bull however, seem to be either good or terrible which if I was Max I would worry about. I still think Ferrari will win tomorrow and no-one even knows if Red Bull can finish.
Well… for who didn’t know yet… Steve’s predictions are as his opinions … just ignore them.
Did your dog also predict a Ferrari win? Than he is indeed as smart as you are Steve 😂
Max had more poles on 2021 because for half the season he was in the fastest car and is also a great driver but the fastest car like any tool and helps the driver achieve the best. However, this talk of Hamilton only being champion because of his car is such an insult to a truly great driver and probably GOAT. As in any sport, like football the best players play for the best teams, in horse racing the best jockeys get the fastest horses and in racing the best drivers get the best cars. It is a fact of life and all about winning. In F1 the best cars get an advantage of a fraction of a second per lap which over 70 laps adds up but the driver has to firstly bring the car home without incident and secondly get the best from the car. Lewis does this better than anyone else just ask Bottas and ex drivers that know what they are talking about and see the perfection in his lines especially under pressure and working with the car all think Lewis is the best there is, including greats like Sir Jackie Stewart. Max is an enormous talent but shows such a lack of experience and judgement which over time he will hopefully learn. Last year he had blown his chances after a faster car gave him a commanding lead but in the last few races the only answer to Lewis he had was to try and drive into him and he had already lost the race in Abu Dhabi by a mile until Masi threw his career under the bus.
You stated earlier that LH lost fair and square to Rosberg even though he had more poles and more wins so you are starting to sound very inconsistent. Max blew it last year pure and simple and no amount of statistics will change that.
Why do idiots write/publish such nonsence. The headlines attract readers but the content is pure rubbish and foolish speculation
Clearly Wolff was annoyed. And Rosberg elaborated on why that might be, He is quoted word for word so how is that foolish speculation??? Doesn’t the opinion of a world champion who has intimate knowledge of Toto and Lewis count???
And the content is Rosberg’s opinion. Not mine!!!
Clearly your devotee ‘Hamilton can do no wrong’ opinion clouds you’re judgement
Why would anyone take any notice of that lying little shit Rosberg. Lewis makes his feelings perfectly clear how he feels about him as whenever Rosberg tries to talk to him he just walks right past and blanks him, I wonder why that is! Rosberg’s credibility amongst most drivers is pretty low so no-one talks so I doubt he knows anything about anything and is just speculating and in this case is way off. F1 is a high pressure and stressful environment so tensions run high and especially as MB are having there worst season since Toto took over. Hamilton isn’t himself either and I know people that are close to him are really worried about him, it seems what happened last year has struck deeper than he will admit. So both are tense and will clash like any marriage but Hamilton won’t give up on MB and Toto will sort it out and Rosberg should bugger back off to his retirement as F1 won’t miss him one bit.
Wow. I’m no Hamilton fanboy but this ‘article’ is pure garbage from start to finish. Where AD was concerned, it’s ALWAYS easier for the team running in second to make a strategy call – they’re not the ones that lose track position.
As for what was said between LH & Wolff, literally nobody knows. They’ve said they’ve been using LH’s car to test setups out which makes sense, seeing as he knows it inside out. How do we know LH wasn’t annoyed at being forced to run a set up that he knew wouldn’t work?
This is a great example of how someone’s narrow minded opinion can be taken as ‘news’, both from Rosberg & the author. As I said, pure garbage.
When you are so biased against a driver. You shouldn’t be writing articles. This is not good for the reputation of the website. A
Why do you chat such bs in your posts? Toto said there were NOT having a heated discussion they were both just venting about how poorly the session went, if you’re going to insist on making stuff up just for your click bait ratings you should seriously think long and hard about following f1, and before all the keyboard warriors come at me with all the Hamilton hatred I was always a jb22 fan.
Just to let everyone know here, this site is toxic and banned me (steve callahan) from posting because I asked why they posted hated posts for Hamilton. It was a good post and pointed out that by process of elimination, they accept drivers that win all the time like Schumacher, they also accept current successful drivers like Max who is an awful person and like Schumacher (trust me I’ve met him). So elimination those three what is left and what is the common denominator, I don’t know LH’s colour?
Well I don’t understand why people would attack a great driver who sets a great example and is a good person and a great example of a champion. yes he is controversial and has his beliefs but he suffered a lot for being the colour he is and is passionate about it, what is wrong with that. they kneel every match in football for BLM?
However, instead of debating this point, it’s easier to ban me instead which says an awful lot about this site. So I can’t bait LH trolls any more but they will continue to make fools of themselves without my help, particularly Duckey who spells worse than my 5 year old niece.
You should get your facts right. They do not kneel in the premier league for BLM – which is a political organisation. They kneel in opposition of racism. BLM stated aims are to overturn capitalism, defund the police, abolish prisons and countries border controls.