Lewis Hamilton is statically the most successful driver in the history of Formula One yet the debate continues to rage whether he really is the greatest of all time. Truly an icon of motorsport and ranked amongst the biggest global celebrities, the seven times F1 champion knows how to promote himself even when results on track are not going particularly well.

The British driver is facing his sternest test of all since joining F1 back in 2007 as he struggles for a third year in a row with the difficult to handle Mercedes W15 car. Yet in F1 there is a measure by which a drivers’ performance can be identified regardless of the capabilities of the car and that is their by comparing their results with their team mate in almost identical machinery.

 

 

 

Hamilton ‘wild’ setup changes slow Mercedes progress

Now 7-1 behind George Russell in Grand Prix qualifying this season and trailing his team mate by 54-42 points, Hamilton has been grooming the media to explain this apparent loss of his genius racing talent. Early in this season Lewis blamed his deficit to his team mate by making out it was his experimentation with setup of the troublesome W15.

If he is to believed, George was going about his business of setting the car up during practice sessions as normal, while Lewis was ‘forced’ to adopt wild experimentations in an attempt to help Mercedes find the silver bullet they were missing.

In an interview with Auto Motor und Sport last week, Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin claimed these volatile set up changes means Lewis has “made himself a victim a few times” through his experimentation.

Writing in his daily telegraph column last month, Gary Anderson – former Jordan chief technical director – explained Hamilton’s experiments are hampering the progress of the Mercedes team: “There is a knock-on effect that hampers the car’s development long-term, too. If you make odd choices on set-up then a team fails to find a baseline for performance and setup,” Anderson revealed from his experience.

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“It limits learning about the car. If that is absent then the development path, knowing what to work on in the wind tunnel and improving aerodynamic performance, will be confused too.

“It leaves a team with no positive direction,” concludes the exF1 engineer.

Of course by presenting himself as the sacrificial lamb in his efforts to find a big leap in the Mercedes’ car performance, this is a thinly veiled attempt to explain his actual performance deficit to his team mate who has twelve yers less experience in F1.

Hamilton became famous for playing the victim when in Monaco he blamed his repeated visits to the stewards on racism. The then McLaren driver had been hauled up in front of the race officials at all but one race that year for his ‘reckless’ driving and crashing into others yet when asked why he was so familiar with the FIA office of judgement, he replied, “maybe its because I is black.”

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Brundle calls out “stupid and childish” behaviour

Of course Lewis was making an attempt at irony, quoting a saying regularly used by British comic Ali G. Yet the subtle notion was placed in the public domain that Lewis on track chaotic actions were being unfairly judged by those with a different skin colour than him.

Hamilton was criticised by Michael Schumacher’s team mate and now Sky F1 commentator, Martin Brundle, when back in 2016 he refused to take seriously questions over why he was being beaten by team mate Nico Rosberg. Following defeat by Rosberg at the Japanese Grand Prix, Lewis refused to answer questions launching a live snapchat video, where he use the app to put bunny ears, noses whiskers on himself and Carlos Sainz while the global F1 media were forced to look on in amazement.

Brundle said: “Instead of focusing on the world championship, he seems to be focusing on an app that puts bunny ears on people. It’s childish and stupid.” Ironically Brundle concluded, “What’s going to be interesting is if it will be a driving force, or is his focus wrong?”

That year the psychological battle which raged between the Mercedes team  mates saw Rosberg come out on top and only the second team mate to defeat Hamilton over the course of a season.

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Lewis claims Mercedes favour George

At last weekends Monaco Grand Prix, Hamilton was up to his old tricks again having qualified just 0.08s behind George Russell he put his latest qualifying defeat to his team mate down to the only upgraded front wing the team had brought to the Grand Prix.

“I anticipated it would be difficult to out qualify George because he has the upgraded component, but it’s just great to see that we are bringing upgrades. I know automatically that I’m going to lose two-tenths [to George] going into qualifying. That’s definitely frustrating.”

The seven times champion went on to suggest there was a conspiracy with the team favouring George claiming he does “not anticipate being ahead of George in qualifying particularly this year.” When pressed why he though this would be the case, Lewis paused for effect then merely replied: “we’ll see.”

However fellow racer and Williams development driver Jamie Chadwick suggested to Channel 4 that Hamilton is “spinning it” to suit his narrative.

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Chadwick calls out Hamilton “spinning” of propaganda

“I think he knows what he’s doing,” Chadwick claimed. “He’s spinning it to make it sound like he’s maybe not got the upgrades this weekend which for me, I’m not sure about because a team like Mercedes, they generally always bring upgrades to both cars.”

Her point being this single component upgrade was a one off and “It’s not like they need to split it [regularly] between the two cars. So yeah, I think he should take his hat off to George. He’s 7-1 on someone like Lewis Hamilton, which is incredible.

“And I think Lewis is probably not happy about that, to be honest. And that’s where that comment has come from.”

Mercedes explained they had offered to toss a coin for who would get the upgraded component, but Hamilton had declined fearing if he damaged it during practice under park ferme rules, then replacing it with another of different specification would see Lewis forced to start the Grand Prix from the pit lane.

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George is “smashing him”

Chadwick reminds us also of the ruthless nature of F1. Having bailed out of his contract with Mercedes a year early when announcing his departure to Ferrari for 2024, even were Mercedes to favour Russell it is only to be expected.

“He’s on his way out next year,” she added, “George is going to be staying in that seat for what they hope is a long time so they need to keep that seat and keep George happy.

“And obviously that might come off the back of maybe Lewis being not so happy but at the same time he’s [George] done an incredible job, he’s smashing him.”

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Mercedes race strategy criticised by Lewis

Hamilton also appeared to criticise the team strategy to start him on the hard tyre when he was told of the first lap red flag. This meant he would have to attempt the impossible and finish the race at the restart on the medium tyre which Pirelli claimed would be nigh on impossible.

“I told you guys, I told you guys,” he complained suggesting he in fact had wanted to start the race on the softer medium tyre. Yet the strategy was sound and also adopted by Red Bull for Max Verstappen who began the race just ahead of Lewis. ,The theory being that those starting in the lower order of the top ten would gain track position when the front runners stopped because their medium ties had given up grip. The drivers starting on the harder tyre and more durable tyre would get track position ahead of their rivals – which in Monaco is vital.

Given the durability of the harder tyre, it may have been the case that the likes of Russell, Verstappen and Hamilton could have run from start to finish on the same hard tyre, making a last lap dash for the compulsory alternative rubber setting up a grand finale finish.

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Newey suspension design now the root of Red Bull problem

Fred Vasseur believes Red Bull and Max Verstappen are now making mistakes they previously were not making during their dominant Formula One 2022 and 2023 campaigns following the introduction of the new ground effect car design regulations. After two dominant campaigns and a start to the season which saw Max win four of the first five Grand Prix, the expectations from the paddock were that this year again would see Red bull run away with both championships.

A mechanical issue saw Max fail to finish the race in Australia handing Carlos Sainz the win, then in Miami McLaren delivered a better race strategy which enabled Lando Norris to benefit from a safety car where he pitted and took the lead and held on to claim his maiden victory in F1. Norris was narrowly beaten next time out in Imola and at last weekends Monaco event Red Bull were at sixes and sevens for the entire weekend… READ MORE