Despite signing a shiny new Formula One contract with Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton has been on prickly for this weekend at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza. He again criticised the W14 car for his failure in qualifying which almost saw the seven time world champion fail to make the top ten shootout for the second race in a row.
However Hamilton’s ire has been targeted at Max Verstappen this weekend. In an interview with Sky F1 a measured Lewis Hamilton revealed he was “not impressed” by his arch rivals record breaking season and the incredible dominance he was demonstrating with his driving skills.
Hamilton SHIT Monza qualifying
When asked for his thoughts on how he’d battled to secure a starting position for the Grand Prix of eight between the two McLaren’s and behind Alex Albon’s Williams, Hamilton did not hold the punches.
“Shit!” Replied Hamilton. “It was terrible, it was a bad session. but you know, sometimes that happens. Sometimes it goes well, sometimes it doesn’t,” he added.
Former team mate Nico Rosberg who beat Hamilton to the F1 world drivers’ title in 2016 said, “It was just a bit strange. From Q2 onwards Lewis started to struggle a little bit.’
“For some reason Lewis just didn’t find his way here [on Saturday]. It can happen that you have a day like that.
“You can see he’s really down, he still hates to come behind his team-mate.”
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Hamilton “harsh words” says Brundle
Hamilton was beaten last season by his team mate Russell, only the fourth time in sixteen years he has failed to come out ahead of the driver in the same machinery.
This year George Russell is fallen behind his team mate through the young Mercedes driver has suffered two mechanical problems causing him not to finish, while Hamilton has been trouble free on that front.
Whilst Hamilton was unhappy with his Mercedes car during the practice and qualifying in Monza, his guns were firmly trained on the driver who is being hailed as an F1 ‘genius’ and whose skills are “incredible”.
Lewis’ “harsh words” as Martin Brundle called them sought to diminish Max’s achievements by claiming the Red Bull champion driver has raced against way inferior team mates.
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Verstappen team mates WEAK
“In my personnel opinion Valtteri – in fact all my team mates have been stronger than the team mates that Max has had,” Hamilton boldly claimed.
“Jenson, Fernando, George, Valterri… Nico… I’ve had so many. I mean these guys are all very very strong and consistent. Max has not raced against anyone like that,” insisted the ex F1 world champion.
If true, this would go a long way to explain why Verstappen is crushing many the records Hamilton set during the height of his career and this weekend may become by some measure the ‘greatest of all time’ winning 10 consecutive races – something never achieved in F1’s seventy three history.
Of course if Verstappen had a ‘decent’ team mate, even in a super dominant car he would be unable to win almost every week is Hamilton’s argument.
Hamilton losing his powers
Whether this is true or just sour grapes, depends on your perception of where Hamilton is at present. Week in and out he appears sanguine and resigned to his fate, but the underlying message is ‘I don’t have the car to do any better.’
Yet in the last race in Zandvoort, Charles Leclerc, the much maligned Sergio Perez and others over ruled their team orders to stay out at the end of the first lap when the heavens opened.
Leclerc even revealed he knew his Ferrari team would not be ready with wet weather tyres but that the wait for his team to assemble them wold be quicker than ploughing on with dry tyres.
Perez decision saw him take the lead of the race from his sixth position before the rains farm.
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Verstappen says Lewis’ “jealous”
Yet Hamilton merely blamed his team after the chequered flag for failing to call him in – then claimed he would have otherwise been challenging Verstappen for the lead.
Max Verstappen having stayed quite for a day has finally responded to Hamilton’s attempts to diminish his current efforts.
“Maybe Lewis is a bit jealous of my current success,” Verstappen was quoted as saying by De Telegraph.
”He might think he can win something with those kinds of statements, but it doesn’t matter to me.”
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Wolff: “Max is outstanding”
Toto Wolff has now intervened to calm troubled waters, but explains he does not agree with his outspoken driver.
“First of all, it’s obvious that the drivers like to poke each other a bit,” said the Mercedes boss.
“But then you can say that Lewis has raced three World Champions. He raced Jenson [Button], he raced Fernando [Alonso] and he raced Nico [Rosberg].
“But I don’t want to in any way diminish anybody’s performance because Max in the car is outstanding. So yeah, it’s just part of the fun.”
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Hamilton’s attack reveals inner angst
Hamilton’s attack on Verstappen may be more about how Lewis is feeling rather than an objective assessment of the Dutch drivers current success.
Lewis was led to believe by his management company that they would negotiate this year a final five year deal with Mercedes together with an 10 year ambassador role for the automotive brand which would seal his legacy within the sport.
Instead Hamilton was only offered a two year contract which he is already talking about extending.
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Lewis to fade away like Vettel
It could be Lewis Hamilton is suffering from the same fate as did Sebastian Vettel. After dominating the sport for four consecutive years, Vettel began to slowly fade from the limelight as he was replaced by the uber dominant Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton.
In Formula One there are no guarantees, but it could be Mercedes do not return to the top spot for some years to come. Behind Red Bull the pack has closed up with Ferrari, Aston Martin and McLaren all showing they can take the fight to the eight time world champion team.
So despite Lewis implying he will remain with Mercedes until he wins another title, the clock is ticking and time may just run out before his ambition can be realised.
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📻: "TELL ME WE HAVE IT?! TELL ME WE HAVE IT?! @Carlossainz55, we can confirm, you have it 😉
Pole position at the 2023 Italian Grand Prix belongs to you! 🙌#ItalianGP #F1 @ScuderiaFerrari pic.twitter.com/MIfd2pfA82
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 2, 2023
Mercs problems are cost cap, jealousy and mental health issues.