Lewis Hamilton is now enjoying pasta lunches in Italy since becoming officially a driver for the iconic Ferrari Formula One team. Yet his twelve year tenure with Mercedes will be the yers that define his F1 legacy.

Six drivers’ titles for Hamilton and eight consecutive constructor championships make the Hamilton/Mercedes era the most successful between a team and a driver in F1 history.

Whilst Mercedes had a dominant car from 2014 to 2021, Hamilton did not have it all his own way. While the rest of the F1 field struggled to catch up – Nico Rosberg who had soundly beaten Michael Schumacher over their three seasons together at the Brackley based squad – kept Hamilton honest.

 

 

 

Tension during the Rosberg years

During their three years together Lewis won two titles to Rosberg’s one, yet it cold have been different as the pair rolled into Abu Dhabi in 2014 with both in contention at the year end double points experiment.

Rosberg’s claimed pole from his team mate by almost half a second and the paddock media were split as to who would ultimately take the title. Unfortunately F1 fans were robbed of a battle to the chequered flag as early in the race Rosberg suffered from electrical problems which restricted his top speed causing the German to slowly fall through the field to finish in a lowly fourteenth place.

The next close battle was two years later when after a flurry of on track ‘blue on blue’ incidents between the Mercedes’ pair throughout the season, Nico Rosberg came out on top despite Hamilton winning the final race of the year.

During the showdown in the desert, Lewis attempted to back his team mate into the chasing pack but was told by the team to desist. Hamilton ignored the team order for multiple laps before realising his efforts were being thwarted anyway.

Verstappen names strongest team mate

 

 

 

Hamilton ‘not easy for everyone’

Across the twelve years of their racing association, Hamilton and Mercedes have experienced the full emotional gambit. His crushing defeat in Abu Dhabi on the last lap of the last race to lose the drivers title to Max Verstappen was indeed the low point of their time together.

Now Hamilton has left the team, there will be those at Mercedes who felt crossed by the seven times world champion and are now prepared to reveal some of the behind the scenes secrets.  

Red Bull’s sporting director, Ron Meadows recently revealed to the New York Times how Hamilton would have sometimes “been a bit too pushy.” The Red bull boss also reveals Lewis was not the easiest driver to work with. “I find him very easy to work with, I’m not sure everyone would say that, but certainly from my side,” Meadows concluded.

Now Mercedes director of communications, Bradley Lord has spoken on a topic which he believes cause significant friction between sectors of the F1 fan base during Hamilton’s time at Mercedes.

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The biggie at Silverstone

During the epic battle between Verstappen and Hamilton in 2021, there was a key moment which ensured the fight ran to the final race weekend of the year. Coming into the British Grand Prix, Max had a healthy lead of 32 points over his arch rival and having claimed pole position he made an excellent start retaining the lead from Lewis who was stringing every sinew to make the pass.

Lewis knew another Verstappen win would see him almost 40 points behind there Dutch driver. Unable to make the move, Hamilton slotted in behind Verstappen along the old pit straight which ends with the high speed Copse corner.

Hamilton moved to the inside, but his line into the turn was compromised – he was now too shallow to complete the move – yet his front left tyre clipped the back of Verstappen’s  Red Bull sending him hurtling into the barriers and recording a hit of 50g and knocking him unconscious.

Lewis recovered to the pits and under the red flag the team repaired his Mercedes and sent him out when the race resumed. Despite being given a penalty from the stewards for causing the crash with Max, Lewis went on to win the race with ease, and what could have been a 40 point gap was now reduced to just seven.

Verstappen on shocking rumour

 

 

 

Mercedes celebrate Max’s misfortune

Mercedes and Hamilton were jubilant with the result, but Red Bull Racing felt they lacked respect or concern for the seriousness of the crash Hamilton had caused with Verstappen being sent to the hospital under mandatory regulations set by the FIA.

Red Bull requested a ‘right of review’ but the subsequent claim against Mercedes was dismissed. The team then issued what many felt was a self justifying statement: “We hope that this decision will mark the end of a concerted attempt by the senior management of Red Bull Racing to tarnish the good name and sporting integrity of Lewis Hamilton.”

The incident and Mercedes’ response had served to divide F1 fans on social media and a keyboard warrior battle promptly ensued. Whilst there were other on track incidents that season between the pair, Bradley Lord now tells Planet F1 he wished they’d handled things differently at Silverstone.

“If we were to talk something we regret, I think, having taken the word of a member of the Red Bull team – and therefore taken a little for granted – Max’s condition after his shunt at Silverstone in 2021,” he said.

“I think how we were perceived to handle that aftermath was a point at which that relationship in that season soured quite dramatically. We could have handled that in a different way that would have been more reflective of the concern we had for Max’s well-being at that point in time, regardless of our view of the incident and the rights and wrongs of it,” Lord muses.

Big update for Hamilton at Ferrari

 

 

 

Mercedes’ attitude stirred up fans animosity

The animosity of the fans grew and grew over the next F1 race weekends and by the time Monza came around, the Dutch supporters felt the move Max pulled on Hamilton – which wiped the pair out of the race – was justifiable payback.

“There was that side of things, and then to have, albeit unintentionally, antagonised the relationship, and the relationship with the fan bases in quite an extreme a way as it happened,” he said.

“That’s probably the moment. If we could go back in time and change it, I think we would change our responses and what we did at that point in time, around that afternoon.”

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Comms director regrets Silverstone reponse

Bradley Lord believes the Mercedes hierarchy learned from their poor form in communications at the British Grand Prix, which was evident during their devastation at the season finale in Abu Dhabi. Hamilton had all but won the race and a record eight drivers title, when a late safety car and an unusual decision from the race director, snatched all hope of victory from Lewis.

“I look back on Abu Dhabi 2021 and how we handled the aftermath of that and, actually, the decision to say nothing and to not communicate was, hopefully, a powerful and elegant way to handle such a difficult situation where no words would have been sufficient to express how we were feeling,” Lord concludes.

Hamilton is a marmite character amongst F1 fans, his devoted Hamfosi know he can do no wrong. Yet his time at Mercedes saw Lewis cross a number of individuals and called for heads to roll in 2023. Its just a matter of time before more revelations of the complex nature of the seven times world champion comes to light.

Horner drops Lawson bombshell

 

 

 

Newey hits out at Red Bull restrictions

Adrian Newey is considered one of – if not THE – best F1 car designers of all time. He was recruited from McLaren when the energy drinks empire bought the defunct Jaguar team and completed eighteen years with the Milton Keynes based outfit.

As with all creative geniuses, Newey has needed managing during his mammoth stint with Red Bull following disagreements at both Williams and McLaren which forced him to look elsewhere after a relatively short tenure with the teams.

Newey became disillusioned with Formula One when the V6 turbo hybrid power units were introduced in 2014 for two reasons. Firstly the regulations now favoured dominant power over his clever aerodynamics and secondly Renault who were supplying Red Bull with the new powertrains had failed to invest properly in the research and development  of the new V6 engines…. READ MORE