Lewis Hamilton had every right to feel sorry for himself at the start of the 2022 Formula One season. Having fought back from a defect to Max Verstappen, Hamilton won the first three of the final four rounds in 2021.
Yet at the finale in the desert, the F1 gods decided it was time for a change and Max Verstappen benefitted from an unusual decision made during the safety car restart procedure. Passing Hamilton on the last lap of the race in Abu Dhabi, Max claimed his first F1 drivers’ title and prevent ed Lewis Hamilton from making it a record number eight.
Russell puts up a fight
Since then, Hamilton has been a shadow of his former self and without a win for over two years now. His first season against George Russell as his new Mercedes team mate saw Lewis put the young upstart in his place as he continued to show why he was called the King of the hot lap.
The final count was 13-11 in favour of Hamilton out-qualifying George, but Russell had placed a marker in the ground finishing ahead of his team mate in 12 of the 22 possible Grand Prix of the year. George was only the third driver in Lewis Hamilton’s career to score more points in a season than the seven times would champion.
Lewis recovered in 2023 finishing 15 times ahead of George, but he was challenged in the qualifying head to head as the pair shared 11 occasions each when they beat the other side of the garage.
1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve is now the second paddock insider who claims Lewis Hamilton has lost his verve but points the finger of blame at the “comfortable” time when he raced alongside Valterri Bottas. The pair raced alongside each other between 2017-21 winning the constructors’ title each year. Hamilton claimed four drivers’ titles during that time, but was never really challenged by his team mate.
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Speaking to GPFans, Villeneuve describes Russell’s Mercedes call up as a “wake-up call” for Lewis, who confirmed ahead of the season that he will make the shock switch to Ferrari as of 2025.
“It’s hard for a driver when you’ve spent years winning, and some years easy winning, especially when you had Bottas as a team-mate,” said Villeneuve in regards to Hamilton.
“He was alone in the championship, basically. He didn’t even need to be at his best to win like he had to do in his first championship,” says Jacques. “Or a few other years against Nico [Rosberg] because Nico was really pushing him.”
Bottas collected 10 Grand Prix wins over their five seasons together, but was more compliant than Hamilton’s previous team mate Nico Rosberg.
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“He got really comfortable with Bottas, and he had a little bit of a wake-up call in 2022 when George joined,” Villeneuve added. “George just had that young energy, wanting to destroy the world, and he did a lot better last year.
“Now, going to Ferrari might be like that little shock that you get… to give him that ‘youth’ attitude.”
Whilst its early doors, Russell has out-qualified and out-scored Hamilton so far this year and Lewis claimed in Saudi that George was “maybe having an easier time” with the difficult W125 car.
Mercedes have got significant problems if ex-F1 technical director Gary Anderson is to be believed. He argues the team don’t know whether their data is wrong or the simulation tools they are using to give the car its baseline setup each F1 weekend is the reason for their difficulties.
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Hamilton was still making significant setup changes in practice three in Jeddah, when most drivers are refining the setup they have as they go into qualifying.
Former team owner Eddie Jordan commented at the weekend:“Lewis, I think, is a bit dejected already with the state of Mercedes,” he told Channel 4’s David Coulthard.
“Mercedes and Toto [Wolff], it’s the same as last year, isn’t it? It’s started poorly. It’s very hard to catch up. When you’ve got somebody like Max [Verstappen] who has 51 points on the board, or something like that, already… I mean, it’s just ridiculous. How is Mercedes going to compete?”
Turning his attention to Hamilton, Jordan observes “Lewis… God, he needs a result really badly,” the Irishman said.
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“The reason why is because George is outshining him, just like what happened this time last year. Sure, Lewis got himself together halfway through and then went on to have a very strong second half of the season.
“But the championship is not two halves. It’s a continuous race, there’s 24 races and, in the races, ninth at the weekend. It’s not good enough, he needs a big result. That’s what I think.”
Given the poor performance of the W15, its is unsurprising if Lewis Hamilton was beginning to focus on his coming move to Ferrari, who are better placed to challenge Red Bull racing this season.
Channel 4 pundit David Coulthard suggested Hamilton “mentally” seems to already be at Ferrari and Villeneuve thinks the “Lewis of his winning days” will then return.
“It’s one of the best news we’ve had in a long, long time,” said Villeneuve of Hamilton to Ferrari.
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“Whether you’re a fan of Lewis or not, it’s huge news. It’s amazing news for F1, for Ferrari, and for Lewis. It’s good for everyone.
“It will be exciting to follow, and hopefully, we get the Lewis of his winning days back.
“That change might build-up the hunger again, that little adrenaline rush that wasn’t there with the Mercedes that wasn’t winning anymore.”
Of course Hamilton will be up against Ferrari home grown talent Charles Leclerc, who many believe is next best placed to challenge Max Verstappen. If Lewis isn’t on top form, he could be blown away in a year by the young Monegasque driver.
But for now Hamilton has his legacy to take care of and even for personal pride he has to try and better his team mate.
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Mercedes AMG F1 team has consistently failed to understand the new 2022 ground effect car design regulations and deliver a car that can win races for its driver. Despite promises of a “new concept” from Toto Wolff for the W15 2024 challenger, Lewis Hamilton believes the technical team in Brackley have delivered ‘more of the same.’
Asked by Sky F1 how difficult it was to extract the qualifying lap he wanted from the W15 in Jeddah, Hamilton replied: “I mean, it’s similar to previous years I would say.” Lewis went on to complain about the dreaded bouncing again, something which left him exhausted and almost unable to extract himself from his car back in Baku 2022. “It’s something that they’ve not been able to fix. We made some changes overnight and this morning the car felt so much better, I was regaining this confidence again and then when we get to qualifying, it disappears again,” revealed the seven times world champion… READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
Bar the 2009-rocketship, Lewis drove with the best F1car of living memory between 2014 and 2020, scoring more 1-3’s than at any other time in F1, and still got beaten by Nico Rosberg. Could we please pipe-down in articles about this person?
To me,Hamilton is still the best ever F1 driver of all times.
Mercedes BOUGHT Hamilton all those Championships. You see no connection between the new Spending Cap and the fall of Mercedes ??!! Red Bull simply outworked and out-engineered Mercedes. Toto can’t now SPEND his way out of the problem. It’s now requires something called MERIT.