Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes have not been at their absolute best in the last couple of years. While Hamilton did not win the title after 2020, it is the same for the Silver Arrows, who won their last in 2021. Now, the seven-time world champion has come out to reveal that these experiences made them find their feet on the ground. The Briton stated how the team had become complacent during their dominance.
Hamilton said in an interview with ABC News, “These last two years have been really a great experience to really fighting with the team. We were winning for such a long time and when you win for so long, complacencies come in and we all get complacent and take things for granted.”
With this, he further added, “I think this has been a great time for us to really pull back, have our feet on the ground, and start back up and dig deep.” Admittedly, Mercedes last had their fair share of dominance in the 2021 F1 season, just the year before new regulations came in 2022.
The 2021 season saw Hamilton and Mercedes go head to head against Max Verstappen and Red Bull. However, after that, it was all about the Dutchman with his Austrian team, who are now ruling the grid. As for the Silver Arrows, they are now humbled after two disappointing years on the trot.
Despite 2 under-par seasons, is there hope for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes in 2024?
Mercedes were far off from their expected performance right at the start of their 2022 campaign. They not only failed to nail the new regulations but also faced a new enemy on the way, porpoising.
The entirety of 2022 went by battling the porpoising and finding out how the zero sidepod concept can be useful. In the end, Toto Wolff’s team finished the season in P3, behind champions Red Bull and Ferrari in P2.
The 2023 season seemed a bit better with the changed sidepod concept and drastically reduced porpoising. However, their mistakes the previous year put them a lot behind in terms of development.
Nevertheless, with the 2023 season gone now, Lewis Hamilton and his team want to get back to the title fight in 2024, more than ever. However, it will not be easy at all as James Allison needs to have humongous development if he has to beat Adrian Newey’s Red Bull.
The Mercedes challengers are slow at race pace as compared to the Red Bull cars. Along with this, they are also technically less reliable to take the fight to Verstappen’s team. The gap between them is regarded to be so huge that Wolff called it Mount Everest to climb if they have to close it down next year.
