Mercedes star driver Lewis Hamilton is reportedly thinking about his future away from Brackley. As the Silver Arrows have been underperforming for over a year now, the Briton is tipped to leave the Brackley-based team to join rivals Ferrari up next.
This comes right after Mercedes failed to make amends with their W14 in the 2023 Bahrain GP. As per Fastest Pit-Stop, Sky Sports host Simon Lazenby is of the opinion that Hamilton might be on his way to parting ways with the Silver Arrows and joining Prancing Horse if things don’t go as planned.
After the #BahrainGP, Lewis Hamilton told BBC 5 Live that the team didn’t listen to his input on the 2023 car 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/jz398l3r0K
— Motorsport.com (@Motorsport) March 9, 2023
Lazenby said, “In the past, Hamilton has been quoted as saying he would like to drive for Ferrari. If Ferrari moves comfortably ahead of Mercedes I wouldn’t rule it out.”
Admittedly, the Prancing Horse has been producing better challengers than Silver Arrows for the second year in a row. After the new regulations were set after the 2021 F1 season, Ferrari came up with a much better F1-75 as compared to W-13 last year.
Moreover, this year’s SF-23 seems to be stronger than its predecessor and this means it is far more powerful and dominant as compared to the W14 so far. Technically, Hamilton moving to a competitive team would make sense since the Briton is still on his hunt for the eighth world championship.
Also Read: Mercedes Reveal Why They Didn’t Listen to Lewis Hamilton- And It’s All Because of Fernando Alonso
A move away might be crucial for Lewis Hamilton
For someone like Hamilton who still has the hunger for a world championship, a competitive car is an ultimate ask. A team failing to provide that might have to see the star driver leave them and join the rivals up next. As happened with Sebastian Vettel when he left Red Bull to join Ferrari in search of success.
Toto Wolff got brutally honest about the current car concept Mercedes is using on the W14 after the team qualified P6 and P7 for the Bahrain GP 🛠 pic.twitter.com/LJ3CEfDTsx
— Autosport (@autosport) March 5, 2023
In the present scenario, Red Bull and Ferrari are the two teams that are close to competitive and regarded as the best challengers in F1, respectively.
With Red Bull out of contention for Hamilton due to Max Verstappen, Ferrari is the only place to go if the Silver Arrows failed to produce a championship-worthy car after repeated warnings from Toto Wolff.
Toto Wolff fired ultimatum for Mercedes engineer
As the Silver Arrows failed to make a mark for the second successive F1 season, stakes and pressures are all-time high in Brackley camp. With W14 misfiring again in Bahrain, team principal Toto Wolff fired an ultimatum for Chief Technical Director Mike Elliott and Co.
When the target is to fight for the championship, a P5 and P7 finish isn’t something the Austrian executive looked for. Moreover, with Aston Martin being far more competitive, it acted as the wake-up call for the Mercedes boss to improve and keep Lewis Hamilton in the team.
Also Read: Fans Show Love as Valtteri Bottas Rekindles Old Bromance With Former Mercedes Teammate
