Come on guys’: Lewis Hamilton sends message to Mercedes amid fresh woes at Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Despite Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton being a prior winner at Baku, he qualified seventh owing to his subpar trend of qualifying performances.

Recently, the attention in the F1 paddock has shifted towards the ongoing competition between McLaren and Red Bull. Conversely, Mercedes has frequently been regarded as the leading car at certain circuits this season, yet the team’s performance has shown volatility at each race weekend.  

Evidence of this fluctuation can be seen in Lewis Hamilton’s consistent challenges in qualifying, as his teammate George Russell continues to widen the gap in their head-to-head qualifying battles, as was evident in the Azerbaijan GP qualifying session.   

Lewis Hamilton stands out among the select group of drivers who have achieved multiple victories in the current season.   While he excels during races, his performance during qualifying sessions portrays a contrasting narrative for the seasoned seven-time champion.  

Despite consistently topping the time charts in free practice sessions, the 39-year-old struggles to replicate this success when it truly counts – during the crucial qualifying sessions.  

• The same thing that I have every Saturday. Yesterday, the car felt great. And coming in today the tires did not work.

Lewis Hamilton: The same thing that I have every Saturday. Yesterday, the car felt great. And coming in today the tyres did not work.

The former pole-sitter claimed that the same routine of having a great car underneath him during practice sessions, which turned into a horrible one continued at the Azerbaijan GP qualifying. Moreover, Hamilton often radioed his engineer during qualifying on how the tires were not in their temperature window, which further infuriated him.

Ferrari’s strong pace around Baku leaves Mercedes bewildered.

Though Ferrari won the last race around in Monza, no one expected them to be at the forefront yet again when Charles Leclerc claimed the pole around the track for the fourth consecutive year. This sudden rise in pace has left the teams shocked, especially Mercedes.

Subsequently, George Russell revealed how the German marque was not able to understand Ferrari’s rapid pace around Baku.

I think it was a fair result. Yesterday was a scrappy result and I was far away from Lewis, and today was better. Ferrari seem quick on these type of tracks. We need to understand why that is.

George Russell believed that the result of the race was fair.   He expressed that the previous day’s outcome was messy and he was far behind Lewis Hamilton, but today was an improvement.  

Russell noted that Ferrari appeared to be fast on tracks like the one they raced on and emphasized the importance of figuring out the reason behind their performance.   

Russell acknowledged that his P4 qualifying position was reasonable, but he was puzzled by how Ferrari rapidly improved their performance.   He also noted that McLaren was over three-tenths of a second behind the SF-24 in qualifying setup, which was considered the fastest car according to experts.   

In addition to this, Hamilton is expected to start one position behind Max Verstappen in the upcoming race.  

This sets the stage for a potentially exciting battle between the two drivers who have previously competed for the title, with the possibility of Hamilton overtaking Verstappen and minimizing the effect of Lando Norris’ disappointing qualifying performance.