Guilty Mercedes Boss Hangs His Head As Lewis Hamilton Redemption Dream Shatters In 2022

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes didn’t have the F1 season they had hoped for. What was supposed to be the battle for his eighth world championship didn’t turn out the way Hamilton would have wanted. Despite this season being far from good for Mercedes and Hamilton, team boss Toto Wolff had all the praise for the Briton.

As per Sky Sports, Wolff stated, “Lewis has been really, really good because you expect a world champion, who has had the title taken away from him, to just come in and smash everybody. But we didn’t give him the car to do that.”

Hamilton and the Brackley-based team both had a rough campaign in 2022. The team that won back-to-back eight constructors’ championships starting in 2014 managed to finish the 2022 season in P3. In spite of such a low atmosphere in the Mercedes garage, the man from Stevenage acted valiantly to pull everyone up, even though he remained winless in 2022.

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“He has lifted us up at times with the energy levels he has shown in the briefing room when it was difficult for him. For me, knowing him for 10 years from a personality side, from a human side, his attitude and mindset this year was outstanding,” further asserted the Austrian executive.

Toto Wolff defends Lewis Hamilton amid “irrelevant” loss to George Russell

For the first time since 2016, Lewis Hamilton lost to a teammate in Mercedes. The 2022 F1 season saw George Russell beat Hamilton by 35 points. While the 37-year-old finished his season with 240 points, in P6, his younger teammate Russell picked up 275 points and finished in P4.

Six years ago, Nico Rosberg beat Hamilton in the same machinery to win the 2016 F1 World Championship. The German won the title that year by 5 points. However, Mercedes boss things the comparison is not fair.

Calling it ‘irrelevant’, the 50-year-old boss said, “They were not racing for a world championship. They haven’t raced for victories apart from Brazil. I don’t think for any of the team it matters whether they finish second, third, fourth, or fifth.”

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George Russell picked up the only win for the Silver Arrows this season. The brilliant 1-2 finish by Mercedes in Brazil has been the best performance of the German team this year. Moreover, the P1 and P3 finish in the sprint further helped the Brackley-based outfit to amass quite a bit of points to finish very close to Ferrari in the constructors’ championship.

Do you think Mercedes will have a competitive car in 2023 to aid Hamilton’s 8th title campaign?