Lewis Hamilton is yet to find a dominant car suited to his needs in this new era of F1. Since 2022, the 7x world champion has struggled on track and hasn’t won a race since the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP. On the other hand, his teammate George Russell has a win under his belt and consistently fights for the podium places.
The gap between Russell and Hamilton has reduced in 2023, but the 103 GP winner claims he has no connection with his car. The driver even went on to criticize his team for not paying heed to his advice while developing the W14.
While Hamilton might be right about the changes needed to improve the car’s performance, he needs to focus more on his own form, claims F1 journalist Dieter Rencken.
Lewis Hamilton needs to improve his performance instead of criticizing the team
Dieter Rencken claims Lewis Hamilton might be struggling to fight for wins in the W14 due to its design flaws. However, the Briton’s complaints against the team look silly when his junior teammate George Russell outperforms him on track in the same machinery.
He expressed on the Racingnews365.com’s F1 podcast, “Lewis needs to accept that right now in the W14, George does seem to have an edge over him. The first thing that Lewis needs to do instead of complaining about the W14 is to look into his performance and see if he can improve.”
Hamilton might be Mercedes’s ‘number 1’ driver at the moment but the $35 Million a year earning driver needs to study from Russell’s notebook to tame the W14. Rencken continued, “The W14 is not an easy car. But if George can do it, so should Lewis who earns 6 times the salary.”
Hamilton only struggling with speed claims Rencken
So far in the 2023 season, Lewis Hamilton has enjoyed better results than George Russell. Hamilton bagged Mercedes’ only podium so far at the 2023 Australian GP.
However, the data still shows Russell is much faster on track than him. The team has usually allowed Russell to take the attacking role and swapped Hamilton on track for the younger driver.
Dieter Rencken claims some of this could be tactical to gain a favorable result at the end of the day. He said, “If you know that both of you are on different strategies and your tires are in a different place, why bother fighting and damaging your race.”
P13 to P6 👏
Watch @LewisHamilton‘s Miami moves 🕺#MiamiGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/k3PUK1n8cf
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 10, 2023
Rencken claims the 7x world champion still can fight for wins. In the 2023 Miami GP, the Briton started P13 but carved his way up the grid to finish P6.
This was a glimpse of the driver’s brilliance, says Rencken. He shared, “Lewis did say that he has not lost his racecraft. He may find it difficult to have speed in this particular car. Ultimately, he did makeup places in the second half of the race pretty quickly.”
Hamilton currently stands 4th in the driver’s championship with 56 points. Meanwhile, teammate Russell stands 6th in the standings, with 40 points after the Miami GP.
