Seeing the fall from grace of 7x champion, Lewis Hamilton is nothing short of disheartening. A man who once ruled the tarmac now sits with his head in his hands as Mercedes falters step after step. After a dismal 2022 season, hope was reignited by the Silver Arrows for 2023, with some really good steps being taken to close the gap to Red Bull. But the stopwatch never lies, and it hasn’t to the detriment of Mercedes this season, too. The Dynasty that they had created in the turbo-hybrid era is now officially over. And to make things worse, there isn’t an easy way out for either Hamilton or the Brackley-based outfit.
Recently, Hamilton has come under a lot of fire for his comments regarding the team’s technical direction. And it would appear that anything he says goes down awfully with fans nowadays. In a recent sound bite, Hamilton was quoted as dismissing the fact that adding sidepods like Red Bull’s would make everything better instantly. He claimed that it could also make them slower than what they are currently.
Lewis Hamilton says putting Red Bull-style sidepods on Mercedes' 2023 Formula 1 car would not improve the W14 and could actually make it slower.
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) March 23, 2023
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However, as soon as his comments went viral on Twitter, fans took to the social networking platform to bash the 7x champion.
Fans troll Lewis Hamilton after he gives his verdict on Mercedes’ sidepod woes
When he was at his peak, he was a polarizing figure. It would appear that when he’s not winning, he still successfully divides opinions among fans. The main gripe the fans over at Twitter had with the 38-year-old is the lack of an engineering degree in the domain of aerodynamics and the fact that his teammate George Russell is going better than him in the W14.
One fan even commented, “So why is George not crying?”
Let’s take a look at just a few of the fan reactions from Hamilton’s expert opinion to Mercedes.
He calling Toto a bozo https://t.co/qEa3SRV5Ko
— Le5-6 (@deepyy_) March 23, 2023
race car driver, rapper, avid vaper, McDonald's cartoon, and now expert Sidepologist
— MAXMVP#1 (@randomaxfan) March 23, 2023
Genius engineer this guy. https://t.co/5GNIKV1S6G
— Evan Smith ✝ 🇺🇸 (@evanr2249) March 23, 2023
While majority of the fans took to bashing the 7x champion, a few sympathized with his plight.
To be fair to Mercedes, it’s not like Ferrari is any better off with their design. https://t.co/WmrcXf92tC
— SnowX2K5 (@Snowx2k5) March 23, 2023
Go steal a Red Bull engineer pay him whatever tf he wants cause mercedes clearly don’t got the brain power to do it https://t.co/IJeIz7YgOy
— 🅿️YETTI (@DYetti_) March 23, 2023
To Lewis’ credit he’s not wrong here
Changing the sidepods alone would have to mean changing the vast majority of car components along with it because a lot of them were designed around the concept
It would be a difficult and expensive task, especially during the cost-cap era https://t.co/ylZVvXAN1K
— Matt³³⁺¹⁶ | 🇦🇺MELBOURNE🇦🇺 (@FM1_3316) March 23, 2023
Even though a few speaks in Hamilton’s defense, fans called the Brit out for wanting to take the easy way out by blaming his team of engineers.
So in other words "don't make the car fast, just make the rear stable and to my liking." https://t.co/37VyRvWJdJ
— S🅱️innala ☀️ (@TKersTuttoPower) March 23, 2023
What’s funny about this is that the great drivers know how to assist engineers with making a car better. Lewis is not one of these, so why are we listening to him outside of his lane? https://t.co/uC9ZeFC6Za
— Stan Lanier (@jslanier) March 23, 2023
But Russell anyways nvm https://t.co/AFxZS9TfEN pic.twitter.com/oQO4IrIHqK
— Tlou (@Los_Mochacos) March 23, 2023
Race car engineer Louis back again! 🦍🦍🦍 https://t.co/yaXb8n6UnD pic.twitter.com/mBZAZVUVSD
— Peyar Gatsly (@f1gaslychamp) March 23, 2023
As has also been the trend, Hamilton was being compared to Russell who has once again been outperforming the Brit on pure pace this season.
So why is George not crying?
— Linda H. (@HoogendonkLinda) March 23, 2023
It’s high time Lewis should stop acting like he knows about aerodynamics. George is putting in much better performances with the same car. Lewis is just exposing himself as to how much he cries when he doesn’t have the fastest car. Stop! Retire!
— Vikrant Bawkar (@vikrantbawkar) March 23, 2023
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Watch This Story: How a Euphoric Sergio Perez Hilariously Leaked His Red Bull Contract Announcement at Monaco
He needs to stop crying . He needs to know that he is now not the best driver in the world anymore !
— Maximus (@MaximusU2008) March 23, 2023
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Has Hamilton’s time in Formula 1 really come to an end? Or is there scope for him to achieve glory elsewhere?