Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes Failures Need a Different Approach, Damon Hill Provides Brit With Niki Lauda Inspiration

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes have been one of the most dominant driver-team pairings in the history of Formula 1. They have utterly outclassed everyone since the start of the turbo-hybrid era in 2014. However, when the regulations received a massive update in 2022, with the return of the ground-effect cars, the Brackley squad could not come up with a competitive challenger. Or they thought they did, but the data from the simulations didn’t correlate with the performance of the track. And Lewis has not been able to win a single race since Jeddah, back in 2021.

However, after George Russell beat him in 2022, the 7-time world champion was back to his best in 2023, surpassing his young British counterpart by 59 points in the championship. And Mercedes was upbeat about their 2024 challenger, the W15, claiming that they had moved away from the zero side pod concept which plagued the car in ’22 and ’23. But things have gone from bad to worse in 2024. Now, instead of getting closer to Red Bull and Ferrari, Mercedes has gone backward and is currently the 4th or 5th fastest team at best.

And Lewis seems to be affected more by the car’s characteristics as compared to Russell, as evidenced by the fact that Russell has out-qualified Hamilton in all 3 races this season. With speculations suggesting that Mercedes is taking on more experiments on Lewis’ side of the garage to unlock the W15’s performance, it did not hide how this could be the worst start to a season Hamilton has ever had. However, the 1996 world champion, Damon Hill, recently gave a word of advice to Lewis during his conversation on the F1 Nation podcast, emphasizing Hamilton’s need to adopt the mindset of Niki Lauda.

When asked about Hamilton losing his qualifying prowess, Hill said, “I would like to take us back to the rivalry of Alain Prost in Formula 1 alongside Niki Lauda, Niki realized he wasn’t ever gonna be as quick as his young whippersnapper, who just turned up, who is frighteningly quick. So, he took a different approach. Okay, ‘I am not gonna outqualify him, but I am gonna outrace him’. You know, it is about the race, the race is where the points are, and he wasn’t affected by the pride, if you like, of being outqualified…”

“It is just two completely different disciplines,” he added, continuing, “It’s a total focus for just the one lap and getting yourself honed in into this mindset of I need to get this absolutely pin perfect every cm of the track. And there’s this other personality that drives the car in a race, thinking strategically like Fernando Alonso, the strategy side of racing driver is a different skill and Niki Lauda had an abundance as does Fernando, as does Carlos as well, and I say probably Max [Verstappen] as well. There are some drivers out there who are just built for the race.”

Whether it’s the car that’s contributing to his struggle or if he is lacking confidence, there’s no doubting that Hamilton always gives it everything he has.

Lewis Hamilton admits to being more physically prepared than ever in 2024

For a driver with over 100 wins in his career, 2 years is a long time for having gone winless. However, instead of letting disappointment weigh him down, Hamilton is doubling down on his efforts, pushing himself harder than ever before, as he recently shared in an interview with GQ Magazine.

He has also said many times that he is not already thinking about his move to Ferrari and is fully committed to helping Mercedes get back on top. And by his own admission, he has been training harder than ever. “I feel the most physically prepared I’ve ever been,” Hamilton told GQ. “So I’m really excited about the present. Knowing that nothing is promised beyond that.”

Can Mercedes improve the W15 enough to give Lewis Hamilton a chance to get one more win with the team? What are your thoughts on the matter?

READ MORE: Lewis Hamilton Blows the Lid Off the Tense Exchange Between Toto Wolff & Niki Lauda That Happened 6 Years Ago