Lewis Hamilton is looking at the situation differently now.
Lewis Hamilton’s shift in attitude toward Mercedes’ engineers reveals just how much the Silver Arrows’ current predicament and the struggling W14 have been eating away at him. The seven-time Formula One champion insisted at the beginning of the season that the team “own up” and acknowledge that their concept was flawed after they disregarded his advice regarding the car.
He told the BBC’s Chequered Flag podcast back in March: “Last year, I told them the issues that are with the car. Like, I’ve driven so many cars in my life, so I know what a car needs, I know what a car doesn’t need. And I think it’s really about accountability, it’s about owning up and saying ‘yeah, you know what, we didn’t listen to you, it’s not where it needs to be and we’ve got to work’
“We’ve got to look into the balance through the corners, look at all the weak points and just huddle up as a team, that’s what we do. We’re still multi-World Champions you know, it’s just they haven’t got it right this time, they didn’t get it right last year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get it right moving forward.”
Flash forward eight months and Hamilton is singing from a different hymn sheet. After a dismal performance at the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday that saw Hamilton place eighth, the Brit thanked his team for their hard work over the weekend and insisted that they could leave Sao Paulo with their “heads held high”.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1, he said: “One thing the car is really unpredictable. In a sense of one weekend it feels good, one session it feels good, and then not.
“I’m sure we will go and look at things and find things we should have done differently but with the one [practice] session it’s difficult. However, I’m still proud of the team because they came in and completed their work; they hold their heads high, and we must keep doing the same. Simply keep moving forward. Another two races with this device. Ideally, no more operating it.”
Mercedes is 20 points ahead of Ferrari in second place in the constructor standings with two races remaining in the season. Red Bull continues to dominate at the top of the racetrack, and the Silver Arrows haven’t won a single race with the W14 this season. When the engineers start creating Mercedes’ new vehicle for the 2024 season, Hamilton will be hoping that things will be different the following year.