Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes yet again failed to live up to their expectations as they failed to take a victory in 2023. Even though they managed to grab P2 in the Constructors’ championship, they are far away from being in contention against the mighty Red Bull. Therefore, Hamilton decided to take matters into his own hands and help Mercedes engineers in developing a better car in 2024.
Speaking about this, the Silver Arrows ace said in a report published by Lastwordonsports.com, “I’m in the factory much more often now, having meetings with all the department heads to try and motivate and encourage them all. I talk to them, show them where we need to improve and what direction we need to go in. I just try to help them be positive and to say we can do it.”
Notably, this has come after Hamilton’s back-to-back complaints against his team for not listening to him during the car development. There were multiple occasions when Hamilton complained about the rear stability of the W14 and how hard it was to drive.
Despite this, Mercedes chose to prioritize other sectors to improve and in the end, it was still a “sh*tbox” to drive, as coined by Toto Wolff mid-season. Nevertheless, Hamilton now let the previous season go and is busy making 2024 count with the new, upcoming W15.
Hamilton and Mercedes’ goal for the 2024 F1 season
After having two back-to-back years of failures, Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes are gearing up to do things differently in 2024. Even though it will not be an easy task to dethrone Red Bull given how massively overpowered they already are, Wolff’s team would still try to reduce the gap.
Given they have James Allison in their wings now, they are working to improve their straight-line speed, reduce tire degradation, and stabilize the rear of the upcoming car. Furthermore, there are also talks about floor and sidepod development for the W15.
Notably, the feedback on the W15 so far has been positive. As Hamilton is hopeful about the upcoming car, his teammate George Russell shared positive reviews after driving the car on the simulation.
However, it is still unclear if Hamilton would be able to be in a contest with Max Verstappen for his eighth world championship. Nevertheless, their try would be to reduce the massive gap this year and hunt them down in 2025.
