“He Has a Bad Spell”: Toto Wolff on Lewis Hamilton’s Recent Struggles

George Russell arguably has one of the hardest jobs in F1: competing with a seven-time World Champion teammate Lewis Hamilton. However, Russell has dominated him this year, especially on the Qualifying front. With Hamilton struggling, analyst Ted Kravitz asked Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff for an explanation, and the latter had a straightforward answer.

“He [Hamilton] has a bad spell,” Wolff said. “And as a racing driver, it can be mind-crushing if you feel that you’re not able to deliver your best performances“.

Russell has already won a race this year (in Austria last weekend) whereas Hamilton hasn’t come close to emerging victorious in any. Wolff, however, is confident that the 39-year-old will stand on the top step of the podium in 2024.

In Austria, Russell was in a prime position to capitalize on Lando Norris and Max Verstappen’s crash. The King’s-Lynn-born driver was P3 and passed the two drivers following the incident to coast to a victory.

Hamilton meanwhile, didn’t have a great outing. He was P6 when Norris and Verstappen came together, the best he could muster at the end was P4. However, it is pertinent to note that his W15 suffered some damage following a crash with Carlos Sainz. However, Hamilton deemed his performance unacceptable.

Hamilton reflects on his woeful Austrian GP weekend

Hamilton’s weekend in Austria went off to a difficult start. In the very first lap itself, he unfairly overtook Sainz and had to give his position back to the Spaniard.

Several laps later, he made a mistake while entering the pits which led to his car sliding across the entry line. As a result,  the stewards handed him a five-second time penalty.

As soon as Hamilton realized he had made a mistake, he got on his radio and apologized to his team. It was then that Wolff told him that there was still “everything to play” for.

#AustrianGP | Lewis Hamilton post-race: “I had some damage on the car. I think Sainz and I touched, there’s a mark on the side of the car so… which is why I went wide at Turn 1.”

the “mark” in question… pic.twitter.com/16TAN531VN

— deni (@fiagirly) June 30, 2024

Although Wolff backed Hamilton, the latter slammed his performance after the race. “Pretty shocking, but really happy for the team,” replied Hamilton when asked to share his thoughts about how he fared in Austria.

When pushed further for an explanation, Hamilton replied, “Been pretty s*** all weekend. It’s not for the lack of trying but [I’m] just generally slow and it’s just not acceptable“.

Since such have been the struggles for Hamilton, there is also a possibility that the 39-year-old may not win another race for Mercedes. The Briton just has 13 races remaining this year to fight for another win with Mercedes before he leaves for Ferrari.