Two Britons, both (somewhat) fighting for 2nd place in the Formula 1 World Championship. One is Lewis Hamilton, a 7-time champion, and the other, is Lando Norris, who hasn’t even been on the podium 7 times. Yet, the former is struggling to get a grip after the beginning of his downward spiral and the latter is on his upward journey. And in a surprising turn of events, Hamilton’s miseries have been credited for Norris’ rise.

Mercedes isn’t having the best year so far. If 2022 was the worst, 2023 has been a step up. But it has been nothing in comparison to the fierceness they had in 2021 and before that. On the other hand, in 2023, McLaren stepped down from the legacy that they created in Formula 1. They went down to fighting amongst the backmarkers. But since they got some brilliant upgrades and turned around, they haven’t looked back.

At the recently concluded Dutch GP, Hamilton had a terrible outing. He got a low P13 in Qualifying, getting eliminated in Q2. And the race was no better with the Silver Arrows messing up his strategy. Though McLaren too made a mess out of their race, they still have been faring better in the recent past. Commenting on this, the Woking outfit’s Team Principal Andrea Stella showed how Mercedes’ problems have benefitted them.

After the Dutch GP debacle, Stella said, “To be able to do that, we need to keep developing the car because I think, at this track in normal/dry conditions, potentially Mercedes could have been there with us.” It is starting to look like everybody except Hamilton is benefitting from being around Mercedes.

While Stella is riding the wave of McLaren’s success, a Mercedes mastermind has good news to give to Lewis Hamilton.

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Mercedes CTO Mike Elliott gives Lewis Hamilton a glimmer of hope

Lewis Hamilton’s professional life has been pretty gloomy for the last year and a half. Mercedes has put him through the most difficult of situations. However, they finally did bring upgrades that made the car a bit quicker. Building on that, CTO Mike Elliott has given him some hope for the future.

In the post-race debrief on the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team YouTube, Elliott said, “I think what is encouraging is that we are starting to see a level of performance from the car that is consistent race to race. We are not seeing the ups and downs. We are able to get the best out of the car that we’ve got and that is encouraging going forwards.”

Having dug their own grave in the recent past, will Mercedes be able to live up to the promises that have made to their talisman?

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