“Lewis [Hamilton] Is Certainly a Taxi Driver Now”: F1 Pundit Pulls No Punches at “Mercedes Missile” Claims

2024 has already been labeled as the worst season for Lewis Hamilton in terms of how he started his campaign. And that is quite something to say after Mercedes was quite upbeat about the gains they had made over the winter after snatching away second place from Ferrari in ’23. At the end of last season, Hamilton himself stated that the team had finally found the North Star it had been missing with the return of James Allison as the Technical Director.

Even the pre-season testing in Bahrain showed some promise for the Silver Arrows as George Russell finished the final day of testing only 0.046 seconds behind the leader Charles Leclerc. Everybody quickly bought into the idea that Mercedes had built a missile, having shifted from their failed zero sidepod concept. However, the team hasn’t been able to extract the full performance from the car because of initial cooling issues with the Power Unit in Bahrain, followed by the embarrassing lack of pace in the high-speed corners in Jeddah, Melbourne, and Japan.

As a result, the 2024 season for the Silver Arrows has been underwhelming, to say the least, as Russell and Hamilton find themselves 7th and 9th in the standings with Lewis only managing to score 10 points in the first 4 races.

Mercedes finds itself as the 4th or the 5th fastest team at best, depending on the configuration of the track. And the Italian sports journalist, Leo Turrini, has not minced words in his criticism of the Brackley-based squad in his recent report on QNMotori. “The Red Bull performance advantage remains clear,” wrote Turrini after the Japanese Grand Prix, where Red Bull was back on top with a 1-2 finish.

“Paradoxically this is revealed by Perez, who will never be equal to Verstappen (then, if one believes that Barrichello was worth Schumi or Bottas was worth Hamilton, well, never mind: I’m too old for such nonsense),” he added. “Speaking of Hamilton: I think he would gladly have a chat with the naive people who bought the claims about the Mercedes missile. But do you think he would have chosen Ferrari in that case? And away, please. Lewis is certainly a taxi driver now, Russell almost.” [Translated by Google]

READ MORE: F1 Rumor: Kimi Antonelli to Take Lewis Hamilton’s Spot in 2025 as Toto Wolff Reveals ‘Developmental’ Reason Behind the Move

While Lewis has reiterated multiple times that despite the struggles, he’s not already thinking about his next season in Scarlet Red. However, his media interactions after every difficult session show just how disappointed he is in his current situation. And Mercedes might just give him another thing to pile on the disappointment.

Lewis Hamilton remains uncertain about his early start with Ferrari

Hamilton has been clear about his commitment to Mercedes in his 12th and final season with the team. However, the continued run of poor performances is finally starting to weigh in on the 7-time world champion as his future team keeps on delivering podium after podium. And while Hamilton is eager to embrace a new chapter of his career with Ferrari, he recently spoke about uncertainties of whether Mercedes and Toto Wolff will allow him to commence work with his new team before the start of the 2025 season.

In fact, Toto Wolff had already said following Ferrari’s announcement of signing Hamilton that the 2024 season could present some ‘challenges‘ as they aim to prevent Hamilton from sharing sensitive information with his future employers. According to a recent report from Motorsport-Total.com, the 39-year-old said, “I think it will start with a conversation with Toto because I don’t know how to navigate that. I don’t think I was at Mercedes until December [2012] when the first seat fitting was made after the season. I’m not sure how I’m going to do it this time.”

Do you think Toto Wolff will allow Lewis Hamilton to get a headstart at Ferrari? Share your insights in the comments down below.