Trauma. If there’s one word that could aptly describe how the past couple of seasons have been for Lewis Hamilton, it’s that. Imagine going from the brink of winning a record-breaking eighth championship to watching your 2021 rival get all that you desire for two years. That’s precisely what happened to Hamilton. And that’s not even the worst part. Mercedes has been the seven-time champion’s home for the past decade. Considering he’s devoted so much of his life to Brackley, you’d think they’d have this unbreakable trust bond. Well, that’s not the case. At least after what’s transpired since 2021.

Mercedes hasn’t been close to the pace-setters for two seasons, let alone compete for the championship. For a team that dominated F1 for almost eight years, you would think it wouldn’t take long for it to realize where it’s been going wrong. The thing is, Hamilton realized it, but Toto Wolff & Co. just chose to ignore him. 

George Russell may have compromised Hamilton & Co. after 2022

In 2022, F1 introduced ground-effect regulations teams knew would lead to porpoising. To curb that problem, Mercedes felt a zero-side pod design would be the most effective. That couldn’t have been further from the truth, but the Brackley outfit stuck to it even for 2023. This was after Hamilton voiced his opinion on the design’s shortcomings. This season, Mercedes finally understood Hamilton’s perspective and revamped the W14. Even so, the car isn’t all that great. And Hamilton’s 2023 trauma can be traced back to the 2022 Brazilian GP.

That weekend in Sao Paulo was a near-perfect one for Mercedes. George Russell qualified in P3 for the Sprint, won the Sprint, and then won the race. That was Mercedes’ first win since the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP. Per F1 journalist Will Buxton, that’s where it all went wrong. On BBC’s Chequered Flag Podcast, he said, “I think [the 2023 championship] was decided at the Brazilian Grand Prix last year when Mercedes had a false dawn. They took the win with George Russell and thought, ‘Oh, there’s potential in this car.’” The team knew its design philosophy was wrong. Even so, it stuck to it.

“Had they not won that race, I think they would’ve torn it up, chucked it in the skip, and started again. Toto Wolff has been very honest this year that any change they make to this car is going to be minimal because the architecture of the car is such that it’s lipstick on a pig,” added Buxton. There’s something inherently wrong with the W14. Until Mercedes changes the car completely—instead of superficial changes only, or, as Buxton put it, put lipstick on a pig—its hopes of doing better in 2024 will most likely be nonexistent. 

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Whether or not anyone at Brackley will admit it, there are trust issues between Hamilton and the team. Especially after the past couple of seasons. It’s a driver’s job to give feedback. It’s the team’s job to accept and implement it. Seeing that’s not happened, Mercedes has been advised to opt for a rival’s method, and Hamilton is seeing to it.

Lewis Hamilton has taken matters into his own hands

If there’s one team that’s stood out almost as much as Red Bull has this season, it’s McLaren. After starting the year as one of the slowest cars on the grid, the MCL60 is more often than not the second-best now. It’s been a miraculous turnaround, one that McLaren’s rivals have been trying to emulate. Comparing Mercedes and McLaren’s situations with their 2023 challenger, Damon Hill gave his thoughts on what Mercedes should do. On the F1 Nation Podcast, he said, “[Mercedes] have changed their exterior aerodynamics around the body of the car and tried to make progress. But you can only do so much with a car that started off going in one direction.”

“McLaren was very open about having pulled a ripcord at the start of the season, going, ‘We don’t think this is the right way to go.’ They did that earlier in the season and committed to it. That’s really why they are where they are right now, compared to Mercedes,” Hill concluded. Like Buxton said, Hill thinks Mercedes needs to make fundamental changes in the car. Lewis Hamilton believes so, too, as has become evident in the past two seasons. How is he taking matters into his own hands? He’s visiting Mercedes’ factory in Brackley occasionally to ensure the changes he requested for the W15 are being implemented.

Do you think Lewis Hamilton & Co. can get back to fighting form in 2024?

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