Former Mercedes strategist and current Williams team principal James Vowles has explained how Lewis Hamilton always enjoys playing an active role in guiding his side in their car development process. As a result, the Briton felt frustrated last season when the engineers at the Brackley team did not pay heed to some of his feedback on their development direction. Apparently, it cost Mercedes immense time and performance on the track, as they have regressed in the pecking order in 2024. With that in mind, Vowles has explained how crucial and effective Hamilton’s technical feedback and suggestions were when he worked with the team.
Speaking on the Track Limits podcast, Vowles shed light on the contagious effect of having Hamilton in the team around the engineering leads. He said, “He’ll do what it takes to his body, to himself, to his training, to his life to win races. There’s nothing that will stand in his way to get there”.
The ‘Whatever it takes’ trait is something Vowles feels often helped Mercedes engineers to extract performance from an area they may not have thought of initially. He added, “He [Hamilton] is very good at pushing engineers outside of comfort into new areas”.
The Williams boss cited that the Briton often used to suggest to engineers that ‘Let’s go and explore all of that again and you never know what you might find’. This was the open-minded attitude that helped the Silver Arrows mount some amazing in-season developments.
In several years like 2017 and 2018, Mercedes reaped the benefits of such developments to outscore and beat Ferrari in the championship. While Mercedes may not be benefiting from this ‘Hamilton effect’ during the recent ground-effect era, Ferrari could benefit from the same when the 39-year-old moves to Maranello in 2025.
Lewis Hamilton may be the gamechanger for Ferrari
Ferrari has been there or thereabouts in the past few years to fight for wins and maybe also the championship, be it the failed battles of 2017-18 or the early season promise of 2022. However, they have lacked good strategic prowess on track as well as in car development to win titles.
Lewis Hamilton may serve the purpose for both these aspects. The seven-time champion brings immense championship-winning experience and knows how a champion outfit should operate. While Mercedes are struggling currently, they have achieved immense success with Hamilton in the past.
So, Ferrari would want to capitalize on that experience and know-how that the Briton will bring to Maranello. On their end, the Italian team has improved in race operations and executing timely pit stops.
Moreover, under Frederic Vasseur, the car development has also seen a few tweaks to maximize their gains on track. Hamilton’s arrival may just further fine-tune these aspects in 2025.
Furthermore, having worked with Vasseur, Hamilton may not face major issues to bed in with the team, given how he is a great communicator as well. Therefore, Ferrari mostly just has to coordinate and stay on the same page as Hamilton, and doing so may help them bring glory back to Maranello.
