F1 News: Lewis Hamilton struggles pinned on Mercedes by team's OWN driver

lewis hamilton, mercedes, chinese grand prix, 2024 — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 Legends

Hamilton struggles pinned on Mercedes by team's OWN driver

Hamilton is without a win in three years

Stuart Telford

Wednesday 24 April 2024 09:57

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes have struggled in recent seasons, but is it the fault of driver or car?

Hamilton is a joint-record seven-time champion, but he is without a grand prix win since Saudi Arabia in 2021, and hasn't taken the overall drivers' prize since the year before that.

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It has been three seasons of Max Verstappen and Red Bull dominance since, and Hamilton will move to Ferrari in 2025 in an attempt to claim an eighth title before his days in the sport are over.

There is some suspicion that Mercedes hasn't necessarily been the problem in 2024 though, with Hamilton failing to beat his team-mate George Russell so far this season, driving what is, for all intents and purposes, the same car.

Former Formula 1 technical director Gary Anderson recently called for the 'excuses to stop' after Hamilton said his car felt 'broken' in China, on the way to finishing ninth, but now somebody on the inside has shed light on the situation.

Hamilton said his car was "broken" in China

Vesti doesn't think Hamilton is to blame

Vesti believes Mercedes car to blame

Mercedes reserve driver Frederik Vesti appeared on the latest edition of the F1 Nation podcast, and made it abundantly clear that the car, not the driver, is to blame.

"By fixing one problem you might introduce another one," said the Dane. "It can happen. I'm not entirely sure that's what's happened but for sure it's a problem with the car and it needs to improve and obviously both the race team and the drivers are chasing that lap time.

"Mistakes like Lewis made in quali [in China] - that happens when the car is not fast enough, cos you need to overdrive, you need to try and squeeze everything out of it to maximise the lap and that can be a problem for a driver."

A host of drivers have been linked with replacing Hamilton at Mercedes, from former champion Sebastian Vettel to the man he will succeed at Ferrari, Carlos Sainz.