Photo by Dan Istitene – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images
After a ‘tough’ first race of the season, Hamilton and Mercedes are looking for answers
Is it getting late early for Mercedes?
The 2023 Formula 1 season is just one race old, but the angst is rising in the Mercedes camp. After an opening weekend that the team described as “tough” saw Lewis Hamilton finish fifth and George Russell come across the line seventh, the Silver Arrows are looking for answers.
When Hamilton came across the line seventh at the Bahrain Grand Prix, he offered a message of support for the team. Hamilton acknowledged that the team has “serious work to do” to “close the gap” to Red Bull, but that he believed in the team:
Now the seven-time champion has gone a bit further. Speaking with BBC analyst Rosanna Tennant on the F1: Chequered Flag after the Bahrain Grand Prix, Hamilton opened up about the team’s 2023 challenger, the W14, and how the team did not listen to him regarding the car.
“Last year, I told them the issues that are with the car,” explained Hamilton. “Like, I’ve driven so many cars in my life, so I know what a car needs. I know what a car doesn’t need.”
“We’ve got to look into the balance through the corners, look at all the weak points and just huddle up as a team, that’s what we do,” Hamilton continued. “We’re still multi World Champions you know, it’s just that they haven’t got it right this time, they didn’t get it right last year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get it right moving forwards.”
Hamilton’s comments come as the team looks to regroup ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. But they underscore the theme that Mercedes has a lot of work to do to close the gap not just to Red Bull, but also Ferrari and Aston Martin. Following the Bahrain Grand Prix, Hamilton conceded that Mercedes was “fourth fastest,” with both Ferrari and Aston Martin “just quicker than us.”
His teammate George Russell went a step further, insinuating that the season could already be getting away from Mercedes. “We are all here to win,” Russell outlined in a statement given to the media including SB Nation. “If we must sacrifice some races or part of this season to give ourselves a chance to fight in the second half of the season, or even next year, that is what we are going to have to do.”
Mercedes faced a similar struggle at the start of 2022, dealing with the much-documented porpoising issues that hampered the first half of their campaign. The Silver Arrows eventually improved their 2022 challenger, the W13, to a point where the team made a late-season push up the Constructors’ table, and Russell secured his first F1 victory at Interlagos.
But those adjustments, and that late-season push, came too late for the team to seriously mount a challenge at the top of the table.
Now the team, and their legions of fans, is hoping history has not repeated itself.
