Lewis Hamilton Is Not the Problem, Mercedes Car Is the Issue, According to Toto Wolff’s Reserve Drive Frederik Vesti

Lewis Hamilton is sticking to the promise he made at the start of the 2024 season. During the launch of the W15, Hamilton was quite emotional about starting his 12th and final season with Mercedes. He did whatever he could to help the team get back on top in Formula 1. And now, after 5 races into the season, the 7-time champion seems to be struggling more than his teammate, George Russell, who is currently 14 points ahead of the 7-time champion.

However, according to the recent comments from Mercedes reserve driver Frederik Vesti, the car is the major reason behind the poor results, not Lewis Hamilton himself. He further noted that Mercedes came up with the zero pod concept at the start of the ground effect era in 2022, when they were expecting very high levels of downforce in the high-speed corners.

Moreover, the simulated data did not correlate to real-world performance. Even when Mercedes got rid of the zero pod design philosophy in 2023 for the more conventional ‘downwash’ concept used by Red Bull, they didn’t see any noticeable improvements. That is because it came down to how the different aerodynamic elements interact with each other to achieve the desired result.

Mercedes has still not been able to integrate their new side pod concept with areas like the floor of the car, which is one of the most important elements for ground-effect cars. And that’s why Lewis Hamilton has been pushing hard to experiment with the setup of his car to find its performance window. But it seems like that range is extremely narrow; any change in the wind or the track conditions quickly takes the W15 out of it.

Frederik Vesti spoke about these issues at Mercedes in a recent appearance on the ‘F1 Nation’ podcast. When asked if the problems with the current car are similar to what they faced in the last two seasons, Vesti said, “I wouldn’t say they are exactly the same as last year. Obviously, by fixing one problem, you might introduce another one. It can happen, and I am not entirely sure that’s what’s happened, but for sure it’s a problem with the car and it needs to improve,” adding, “And both the race team and also the drivers are chasing that lap time, and that’s why that mistake like Lewis made in quali, that happens when the car is not fast enough because you need to overdrive it, you need to try to squeeze everything out of it to maximize the lap and that can be a problem for a driver.”

Lewis Hamilton’s setup changes in between the Sprint race and qualifying cost him the starting position for Sunday as he got knocked out of Q1. But according to Toto Wolff, he took things too far.

Toto Wolff cautions Lewis Hamilton against chasing ‘silver bullets’

Hamilton had a good sprint race in China. After qualifying second, the British driver took the lead into turn 1 and would have won the Sprint if Max Verstappen wasn’t in the race. However, once the Parc Ferme reopened, Hamilton took a huge gamble with the setup of the car and went in a different direction than George Russell. Eventually, it turned out to be a poor decision, as the ride became difficult to drive.

“The car that we have under us is not currently fast enough. However, we must make sure that we are not trying to find a silver bullet each weekend when it comes to how we run the car,” Wolff told Sky Sports F1 after the race as a warning to Lewis Hamilton for making extreme changes to the car, further adding, “We need to focus on getting the basics right and maximizing the package we have.”

Do you think Lewis Hamilton will be able to catch up to his teammate in the coming races? Or will Russell beat the 7-time champion in his final season with the Silver Arrows? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.