Lewis Hamilton had a torrid weekend last time out in Brazil. In the single practice session the Mercedes driver was in the bottom five and for sprint qualifying he failed to made it out of SQ2.

With George Russell finishing P6 in the Sprint, the seven times world champion was conspicuous by his absence outside the points. Come Grand Prix qualifying, Hamilton again made an early exit in Q1 and on his return to the pit lane he barked “damn car” over team radio before explaining to assembled media: “The car I have right now, it’s the worst I’ve ever driven.”

The race was not much better for Lewis, who came home in tenth but was again apoplectic over the state of the car he had driven. “That was a disaster weekend guys,” radioed Lewis,“That’s the worst the car’s ever been.”

 

 

 

Hamilton “worst…. ever”

Once safely back inside the paddock, Lewis continued to rage to the media present: “It’s like a plank of wood. There’s no suspension. It’s just bouncing on the tyres, everywhere. Can’t get on the power anywhere. The worst ride definitely that we’ve ever had,” he said.

Hamilton also sparked a wildfire rumour he would be bailing on his Mercedes team before the end of the season suggesting all he wanted to do was now go on holiday. Lewis team radio caused a stir when he appeared to be saying farewell on the slow down lap: “If this is the last time I drive, it would be a shame if it wasn’t great. But I’m still grateful to all of you” sent social media into meltdown.

Yet the truth behind the scenes is this was the last weekend of the season for Hamilton’s pit lane crew and certain engineers. Mercedes along with others have introduced rotation system which sees the trackside crew take it in turns over the long haul that is now a 24 race weekend calendar.

Ex-Haas team principal, Guenther Steiner believes Hamilton is being particularly vocal given the little time he has remaining with the team. “The car is what it is. It’s not the best car, it’s the fourth best car at the moment on a good day,” he tells the Red Flag podcast. “I think Lewis knowing that he’s leaving anyway, it’s easier to complain.

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Steiner mocks notion of Mercedes IP theft

“George has got all the interest to do to whatever is there to show that he’s the leader of the team for the future. He has to prove that, because he knows that because he knows that when his Mercedes contract is up, his seat is not 100 per cent safe so he just tries to do his best, puts everything into it.

“And on the other side, Lewis doesn’t like the car and how it drives, knows that now in three races he’s not there anymore.”

Other reports emerged in Brazil, that Lewis Hamilton has been frozen out of particular meetings at Mercedes, the explanation being it is designed to prevent Lewis taking valuable intellectual property (IP) to Ferrari.

When asked about the likelihood of a team acting this way, Guenther Steiner was his usual humorous self. “Nobody wants it! Maybe they want it to know what not to do. It’s like ‘get me the IP so I know what not to do’,” he laughed.

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George Russell: “Glass half full”

Steiner then likes it to the situation he found himself in at times when in charge of Haas F1. When asked whether he’d ever been concerned about a Haas F1 driver stealing IP the former boss retorted: “Never. Who wants it? I was actually hoping that someone could be stealing it. Just have it at, please do it.”

Steiner then strikes a more serious tone suggesting Lewis wealth of experience during his eighteen years in F1 will stand him in good stead regardless. “His engineer is in there anyway, because you need to set the car up and obviously has to give the feedback what he wants on the car.

“I mean, the car, it is what it is. I think Lewis is just at that point he doesn’t like the car, he complains about that, he sees the glass half empty while George sees his half full. They’ve got a few more races to go.”

Steiner believes Mercedes have failed to grasp the basic concepts required for the new ground effect cars introduced in 2022 despite a renaissance with the team winning three of the four races before F1’s summer break.

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Wind tunnel correlation to blame

“They won three races this year,” he says. “Then they said, ‘Oh, we understood now what we need’. And then the race later, they didn’t. That means they didn’t understand that.

“Toto said a few times this year: ‘We now understand what we need to do’ and stuff like this. But they didn’t.”

Hamilton is struggling with the upgrades Mercedes brought to Austin Texas, with the British driver scoring just 16 points across the last triple header when compared to George Russell’s 37.

When asked where the former world champion team’s problems lie, Steiner is candid: “If I would know, Toto would love me for it. If they don’t understand that, how can I understand that?”

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McLaren new wind tunnel powers them ahead

Steiner believes like Red Bull this year, wind tunnel research may be at the heart of Mercedes difficulties. With a whole new set of aerodynamic effects being introduced just over two years ago, certain teams at times have admitted struggling to under stand the correlation between the results from the 60% size wind tunnel models and what happens when the component is fitted to the real life car.

“You find something in the wind tunnel and you know how to put it on the car, but you put it on the car and it doesn’t do what it wants to do, what you think it should be doing. It has a lot to do with which ride height you’re running,” adds Steiner.

Clearly McLaren are ahead of the game in this respect with their new wind tunnel coming on stream early last season. Within weeks the team which had scored just 17 points over the first eight rounds were delivering the quickest car to the high speed circuits and scored more points from Austria onwards than any other team bar the record breaking Red Bull Racing.

Earlier this year, McLaren team boss Andreas Stellar remarked on the accuracy of the correlation between their wind tunnel and the real life upgrades they brought to the car, something Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes have found difficult at various points throughout this year.

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Ferrari boss “regrets” Lewis Hamilton decision

Lewis Hamilton is statistically the best F1 driver of all time when it comes to qualifying. His 104 pole positions tower above even the greatest of drivers with Michael Schumacher (68), Ayrton Senna (65), Sebastian Vettel (57) and Max Verstappen (40).

Yet since the introduction of the new ground effect cars in 2022, the seven times world champion has appeared a shadow of his former self. Having lost his lead over George Russell in Brazil, Hamilton is now seventh in the drivers’ title race with only Sergio Perez below him from the top four teams.

Russell has also conquered Hamilton twenty times this year in the various forms of qualifying and should he retain the lead over his team mate, the young driver from Kings Lynn with have been the first to better Hamilton over a three year period… READ MORE