From questionable comments to an ‘undrivable’ car, it looks like the iconic Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes partnership will be ending on a sour note.
After 243 races together, Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes have just three more remaining together. In those 243 races, Hamilton and Mercedes have shared 7 World Drivers’ Championship titles, 8 World Constructors’ Championship titles, 84 race wins, 55 podiums, 78 pole positions and 3,916.5 points.
No driver and team in the history of Formula 1 have had a partnership that successful. Together, they beat records that no one thought would ever be touched. However, with ease, Lewis Hamilton drove past multitudes of records, earning a spot amongst legends like Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.
A partnership as successful as that is one that many would hope would never come to an end prematurely, or in a negative manner. However, it appears that that is exactly how the pair will bid farewell to each other.
Wolff’s ‘harsh’ words
Toto Wolff recently made some comments that have been making the round on social media, with many unhappy with the Austrian’s words.
“[But] I like the situation. It helps us because it avoids the moment where we need to tell the sport’s most iconic driver that we want to stop.”
“There’s a reason why we only signed a one-plus-one-year contract.
“We’re in a sport where cognitive sharpness is extremely important, and I believe everyone has a shelf life. So I need to look at the next generation. It’s the same in football. Managers like Sir Alex Ferguson or Pep Guardiola. They anticipated it in the performance of their top stars and brought in junior players that drove the team for the next years.” – Toto Wolff speaking to Matt Whyman via Motorsprot Magazine.
Toto Wolff’s words suggest a lack of belief in Lewis Hamilton’s near future. Meanwhile, in contrast, Fred Vasseur’s words have been of a positive nature, saying that “for sure” the 7-time World Champion “add value.”
Lewis Hamilton will have all eyes on him to prove Toto Wolff wrong come 2025.
“Lewis will be looking to fly out of the blocks as quickly and as positively as he can. Has he still got what it takes? I think he has.
“For Lewis, it will be something fresh. His relationship with Fred Vasseur will be positive and benefit the team. He really respects him. Then there is Charles to deal with at the same time which will really motivate him. It is all about motivation for the driver.
“It should be a really good start for Ferrari because of the position they are in at the moment.
They’ve got to tweak a couple of things to ensure overall consistency but the car has got the pace to win races as Charles has proven.” – Johnny Herbert speaking to Vision4Sport, who offer hospitality for next year’s Monaco Grand Prix, click here for tickets.
Addressing Hamilton’s form
Having won only two races since 2022, many have questioned Hamilton’s longevity. As a result, there have been question marks over whether Ferrari have made the right decision. Circumstances beyond his control have been the core of this, as the poor performances from the W13, W14 and W15 have shown.
An area that Hamilton has at his own fault failed to impress in his qualifying pace. As the driver with the most pole positions (104) in Formula One history, he has set the standards quite high. Therefore, his qualifying performances in the past three seasons have been subpar.
However, his race pace has been as good as the poor machinery can allow him. Having often qualified in low positions, he has had to see himself climb the grid in a recovery race, often finishing the race close to his teammate George Russell who qualifies higher.
Lewis Hamilton’s most recent poor result came at the Brazilian Grand Prix. For the Sprint race, he finished where he started, in P11. As for the main race, he started in P16 and finished in P10. Russell meanwhile was P6 in Sprint qualifying and the Sprint itself. Russell then managed a P2 start for the main Grand Prix, with a P4 finish come the chequered flag.
However, there was a lot more to Mercedes’ difficult weekend in Sao Paulo. In what was a wet weekend, both Mercedes drivers had brake issues throughout the race, finding it difficult to stop the car. They also both struggled to get the tyres up to an optimum temperature.
And despite no upgrades brought to Brazil by the Silver Arrows, the British duo were running slightly different specifications, and likely will for the remainder of the season.
The focus is now on 2025
“It is certainly a good opportunity for us to do a bit more experimentation in the race weekends, but the key thing for us is making sure we have done the important bits of learning ahead of the 2025 season.
“We are not bringing any more major updates to the car, it might be that we have some test items, some small bits of bodywork that we are looking at but again this would be very much in the context of learning for the future.
“There will be lots of opportunity to do set up work, lots of opportunity to use the two cars to compare different approaches and hopefully over the next few [races] we can just add to the learning that we have already made during this season.” – Andrew Shovlin in Mercedes’ Mexican GP debrief.
This gives a different perspective to Hamilton’s weekend. Whilst his teammate did struggle too, especially in terms of pace, his car did appear slightly more balanced. Hamilton meanwhile struggled more with an unbalanced car with very low grip on his rears, leading to the very snappy W15 that the onboards showed this weekend.
“It’s like, no suspension, bouncing on the tyre everywhere. Can’t get on the power anywhere. The worst ride we’ve ever had particularly through corners, just so stiff.
The team could have won also, today. At least one car was behaving okay.” – Lewis Hamilton post race in Brazil.
Since the conclusion of the Brazilian Grand Prix, Mercedes have confirmed that it is only until next season will the biggest changes from the factory in Brackley arrive to the track.
They have also confirmed that their 2025 car will be an evolution of the current model, with F1 teams set to begin work on their 2026 cars next year. This strategy carries the risk of inheriting many of the W15’s unresolved issues if they are not addressed. This risk suggests why they have chosen to run tests with the aim of improving their 2025 challenger.
