Lewis Hamilton expressing his dislike for Mercedes cars in the last three years has been a common phenomenon. One could argue those complaints have only risen since the announcement of his impending departure for Ferrari. The most recent jibe came when Hamilton said he’d rather drive Ayrton Senna’s 30-year-old car for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix rather than Mercedes’ W15.
The complaints, as per former Haas boss Guenther Steiner, find their roots in Hamilton’s supposed end of interest in Mercedes. That, Steiner also believes is the reason behind the dip in the seven-time champion’s performance. If Hamilton’s performances are compared with George Russell, who will stay with Mercedes, Steiner’s claim is justified.
“I mean, the car is what it is. It’s not the best car. It’s the fourth-best car at the moment on a good day, you know. So I think Lewis knowing that he’s leaving anyway, it’s like it’s easier to complain,” said Steiner on The Red Flags Podcast.
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⚠️ “That was a disaster weekend, guys, That’s the worst the car’s ever been. But thank you for continuing to try, great job. To all the guys that are p**sed off, if this is the last time that… pic.twitter.com/yzbYVjKIP9— F1PL (@polishgpf1) November 5, 2024
Russell, on the other hand, has several reasons to continue to put in the effort for Mercedes, as per Steiner. Among those is his role in the team, which will convert to that of the senior driver once Hamilton departs.
Another reason is the Mercedes seat, which Steiner believes is “not 100 percent safe” for Russell. But could the reason for the dip in Hamilton’s performance be the lack of transparency in knowledge transfer?
After all, there is a risk that intellectual property (IP) might make its way to Ferrari in 2025. Steiner rules out that possibility as well as he believes Mercedes would anyways have Hamilton’s race engineer in such meetings, if not the British driver himself in person.
Steiner mocks Mercedes over unappealing IP
When further probed on the question of IP, Steiner jokes there is not much in Mercedes’ IP, which is appealing for other teams to get their hands on. He further mocked Mercedes for having the IP, which other teams would only want to make sure they don’t make the same mistakes.
“Nobody wants it. Maybe they [other teams] want it to know what not to do. That’s always good to know sometimes, you know? So, it’s like, get me the IP so I know what not to do,” Steiner joked.
When asked if he ever was afraid an outgoing Haas driver would take their IP, Steiner maintained he wasn’t. He quipped that he’d rather prefer the outgoing driver would do that so that the other teams would trickle down to his team’s level and make competition more interesting for Haas.
