Throughout the 2024 Formula 1 season, the defending Champion from Red Bull, Max Verstappen, showcased stunning performances to cement his name to the topmost spot on the Drivers’ Standings. And Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc has also done well for himself as he bagged a win at his home race in Monaco. But none of the Mercedes racers, be it Lewis Hamilton or George Russell, managed to get a top 3 place in the races until the latter pulled up in P3 in Montreal.
Mercedes shared their delight at George Russell’s podium finish at the Canadian GP on X. “Heading home with our first trophy of the year,” read the post on Mercedes’ official Twitter handle that was put up right after George Russell pulled up behind Max Verstappen and Lando Norris at the Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve. However, fans of Lewis Hamilton found a factual error in Mercedes’ claim that it was their “first trophy of the year”.
This is our second trophy of the year, not our first as we mistakenly said. All Sprint and Grand Prix trophies matter to us.
Thank you for holding us to account on this mistake. https://t.co/BstKAJsbcK
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) June 11, 2024
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They got enormous backlash soon after Mercedes posted their reaction to Russell’s podium victory. This is because, Lewis Hamilton, also a Silver Arrows racer, had gotten the second position at the Chinese GP Sprint Race. According to the die-hard Hamilton fans, that was Mercedes’ first trophy of 2024, and not George Russell’s P3 win in Canada.
Fans flooded social media to protest against Mercedes’ mistake in recognizing Lewis Hamilton’s P2 spot at the Sprint Race in Shanghai as their first podium finish of 2024. In the end, Mercedes did concede and put out a public apology on X. Their latest tweet reads, “This is our second trophy of the year, not our first as we mistakenly said. All Sprint and Grand Prix trophies matter to us.”
However, the fans are unhappy with how Mercedes omitted Lewis Hamilton’s achievement. They took to the comment section and reacted to the German manufacturer’s post, saying they had been too late in accepting their mistake.
Fans bash Mercedes for being “too late” in recognizing their mistake of snubbing Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton is arguably one of the most successful F1 racers in history, and a huge chunk of his success comes from his tenure at Mercedes. But as the Briton is all set to move to Ferrari next year, speculations persist about how Mercedes is no longer helping Hamilton achieve the top spots in the races. And when their X admin posted in favor of George Russell, the Hamilton fans stormed in with comments saying Mercedes skipped recognizing the Sprint P2 finish of a “legend”.
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One user pointed out that Hamilton was a legend as the user stated, “We shouldn’t have to ‘hold you to account’ you have two drivers, one of whom is a legend.” Another user stated how they shouldn’t have been bullied to change it by stating, “No way y’all got bullied into this. Take notes admin because we’re always paying attention”, while another said it is too late to make corrections, “Yk it too late to fix tht mistake.”
One fan also mentioned a previous comment that the Mercedes admin made on Instagram in reply to the fans’ protest. They tried to justify not calling Lewis Hamilton’s Sprint podium win their first trophy of 2024 because he did not get a trophy but got a medal and a plaque. But the fans were not having any of that by pointing out, “‘Mistake’ but your comment on Instagram says otherwise.”
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While Lewis Hamilton was brilliant in his race delivery at the Chinese GP Sprint, he indeed remains to win a top 3 position at any of the Main Races in 2024. He came quite close to making the cut in Canada as he finished in P4, only 0.602 seconds behind his teammate George Russell. Do you think Hamilton can charge up and finish in the top 3 in the upcoming Grand Prixs and maybe even win one race in the remaining part of 2024? Let us know in the comments below.