Lewis Hamilton‘s final year with Mercedes is turning out to be unexpectedly uneasy. There were reports of a rift with Team Principal Toto Wolff that only seemed to amplify at the Monaco GP. With Mercedes only equipping George Russell‘s W15 with upgrades, Hamilton cryptically took a jab at the team for biased treatment. However, Williams (also a feeder team to Mercedes) F1’s development driver, Jamie Chadwick, believes that the 7-time champion sounded unsportsmanlike making such comments.

A struggling Hamilton is being terribly out-qualified by Russell in 2024, being 7-1 down after Monaco. So when the Silver Arrows upgraded only Russell’s car for the weekend, Hamilton was ‘frustrated’. The soon-to-be Ferrari driver also said that he does “not anticipate being ahead of George in qualifying, particularly this year”, hinting at being on the wrong end of preferential treatment. Though this caused a stir over the weekend, his compatriot Jamie Chadwick disagreed with him.

“I think he (Hamilton) knows what he’s doing,” Chadwick told Channel 4. “He’s spinning it to make it sound like he’s maybe not got the upgrades this weekend which for me, I’m not sure about, because a team like Mercedes, they generally always bring upgrades to both cars. It’s not like they need to split it between the two cars. So yeah, I think he should take his hat off to George. He’s 7-1 on someone like Lewis Hamilton, which is incredible.”

Russell is indeed putting on a show like he did in 2022, his first year with the Brackley outfit. Even though this is getting on Hamilton’s nerves, Toto Wolff is trying his best to put up a united front.

Toto Wolff downplays Lewis Hamilton’s cryptic jab to highlight Mercedes’ fairness

Lewis Hamilton is in his last year with Mercedes, while George Russell is their future leader. So Toto Wolff & Co were naturally expected to phase the 7-time champion out of their developments at some point in the season. Though that time seems to have arrived, the Austrian team boss claimed they are being completely fair.

“Aren’t all drivers a bit skeptical at times?” Wolff remarked when asked about Hamilton’s accusation. “As a team, we have always demonstrated, even in the most tense competitions between teammates, that we are always trying to balance what is right and be transparent and fair. We are trying to do the best out of the relationship (with Hamilton), trying to maximize the results for what is our final season together,” he added.

When asked about a rift with his champion teammate, Russell denied it too. “The relationship’s good”, he responded. Even if there are no rifts within the team, the unrest seems to build. Unless they come together for the bigger cause of the championship, even 2024 might be a write-off.