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Formula One F1 – Monaco Grand Prix – Circuit de Monaco, Monaco – May 25, 2023 Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton during a press conference ahead of the grand prix REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
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Formula One F1 – Monaco Grand Prix – Circuit de Monaco, Monaco – May 25, 2023 Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton during a press conference ahead of the grand prix REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
“Everybody has a target on their back next year,” said a threatening Toto Wolff at the end of 2021. But unfortunately for him, he found one on his own back. While Mercedes was a straight 8x champion, the dark clouds of humbling spell set on the team when the new regulation changes arrived. The team which has seen the most glorious aspect of the turbo hybrid era was now struggling to sometimes even make it out of Q1. Now Lewis Hamilton, who sacrificed 2022 to collect data for the team, has lost his patience.
Running different setups and sacrificing his hopes to achieve significant data is how Lewis spent 2022. And the team stuck to the zero side pod concept over the winters, which saw Hamilton publicly bashing the team for not listening to him. But while he praised his team’s efforts last weekend, he is still a very pissed man.
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Formula One F1 – Monaco Grand Prix – Circuit de Monaco, Monaco – May 25, 2023 Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton during a press conference ahead of the grand prix REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
As quoted by Motorsport-next Gen, he said, “The contribution we’ve had as a team, George and I, over the last year is these constant conversations like, ‘Why does this F1 look like this and ours look like this?’ or ‘Have we tried that?’ We now have the wider sidepods which are more in the direction of Red Bull. It’s not my decision to go in that direction. You have to change things. It’s probably a waste of time.”
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He added, “And it was clear that when we got but the car on track in the first test, it was basically the same, really, as last year’s car, except for the rebound. It’s a nicer sister, still with some of the very similar characteristics and how it rides, without porpoising. We took notice, we got it wrong and now we’re slowly striving and trying to get back in front. It’s just a long process, unfortunately.”
And he perhaps may look to find happiness elsewhere, not being in the title contention for two years now.
Lewis Hamilton ready to miss a race
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Lewis Hamilton has served us with the best crossovers from the entertainment world. In fact, the happiest we saw him recently was when he let his hair down at Coachella. And now the man who was almost a part of the second issue of the Top Gun series has made a mighty commitment wanting to be a part of the third issue.
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Formula One F1 – Monaco Grand Prix – Circuit de Monaco, Monaco – May 25, 2023 Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton ahead of the grand prix REUTERS/Piroschka Van De Wouw
He said, “There are some other people bringing upgrades this weekend. What I felt the last race I am intrigued to see what it feels like here, I think our race was pretty decent last year here. I’m hoping for a better weekend. We didn’t get a lot of data from last weekend just because you had to take off sensors because the car was heavy. This is where we will get the most information.”
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Do you think Lewis Hamilton will win a race any time soon?