Lewis Hamilton’s difficult revelation: “Is it me or the car?”

Lewis Hamilton He has become accustomed to driving the best car on the grid, winning 6 titles out of a possible 7 from 2014 to 2020and where He fought for the championship until the last appointment in 2021 against Verstappenstay two years in a row without a win, far from glory. The 7-time world champion was left with honey on his lips at the controversial end of the 2021 World Championship, deeply hurt by the race direction decision that ended up losing the title on the last lap in favor of Verstappen. He is 8 crowns short of the record.

The new regulations then began in 2022, hoping that Mercedes, a team that has rarely made mistakes in recent years, will find the key to the new regulations to create a winning car. But his innovative zero pontoon concept did not work and he suffered far from victories, even seeing how George Russell, in his Mercedes debut, performed better than him. It was a difficult moment that Lewis Hamilton reflected on in a wide-ranging interview with the ‘BBC’.

Lewis asked the team to shelve that car concept, but they pushed for it at the start of 2023, and quickly found they had to scrap it permanently. They changed cars mid-course and improved, but still had no chance of winning. Of course, Hamilton considers that they now have a clear path for 2024, where he hopes his team will take a definite step forward, however difficult it may be to catch up with Red Bull.

“When you have tough times like this, there are always times when you think, ‘Is it me or the car? Do you still have it? Is it gone?’ Because that disappears, you know… when the magic happens, When it all comes together, the car and you, and that spark, it’s something extraordinary. And that’s what you’re looking for,” He opened up about these years away from success, admitted that he doubted himself and highlighted that more than an F1 champion, he is “just human”.

In that sense, the Englishman emphasized the enormous pressure that surrounds him and how the press or fans will know his victories or defeats at this moment in his career, where he makes sure that whatever he does, “I’ll just lose.” That, according to Hamilton himself, made him reflect on whether he wanted to continue in F1 or not.

“There’s a lot of glitz and glamor and a lot of positivity, but it’s not easy to be at your best, to stay focused, to keep training and to keep delivering. “It’s a lot of pressure. You are scrutinized all the time and I am at a place in my life where there is no way I can win. If I win a race, it’s: ‘Oh, he’s a seven-time world champion, you’ve got 103 wins.’ If I didn’t do well, it’s (criticism)… so at this point in life I’ll just lose. So definitely “There was a period of time where I was wondering if I wanted to go through that.”

Despite this, Hamilton was able to recover from those thoughts. He wants to continue in F1 and renew with Mercedes (until 2025) at the age of 38 because he still loves what he does: “I still love driving. I still love getting in the car. When they start the car and you have all the people around you, the team, you go to the pit lane, I still understand it. “I still smile like the first day I drove.”

BEST VERSION IN 2023

In 2023, Lewis Hamilton raised his level. In 2022, he suffered a lot with his car and said his results were more compromised than Russell’s because having more experience, he had to experiment more with more complex settings to find a solution to the car. However, in 2023 the one from Stevenage showed himself to be more consistent and superior to George. “Most of my performances in the race have been really good. So I’m happy to get back to the level I should be at,” he commented to the BBC.

“Qualifying is still an area that we need to improve. We are struggling as a team to get the performance out on these tires and you will notice that there was a weekend where George was very bad and I was good, and then it changed this is for the other. . side. And that comes down to small details with the car,” he added.

PRESSURE AFTER TWO YEARS WITHOUT A WIN

“Without a doubt, we have a lot of pressure. Not just Toto (Wolff, Mercedes Team Principal), but worldwide, for all of us. Everyone in the factory feels a lot of pressure on everyone.”

“Hopefully, some of the race results and the performances I’ve done … I’d like to think that creates inspiration for the guys (at the factory), like, ‘Oh, we’re close.’ And that trickles down. through the whole system like, ‘Oh, he still has it; if we work hard and give him the car, he’ll take us there.’ That’s what I strive for.”

ABOUT VERSTAPPEN

“You can look at the lap times and some of Max’s data; most of the time he’s just relaxing in front (leading). I don’t think he’s been sweating all year.”

“Even when we were chasing him in Austin, I don’t think he was sweating. I think he was just able to control it. And when you’re in that position where you have performance, the car goes further. The tire last mas long and you’re on point. it’s the best and it’s incredible to be in that place. They’ve done an incredible job (Red Bull), they’ve worked and they deserve it.”

THE CAR OF 2024

Mercedes, after changing its concept and adding pontoons to its more Red Bull-style car from Monaco, developed the car and battled to become the second best single-seater. But to take the last step of the fight for wins, they realized that they had to wait until 2024. With the budget ceiling, they could not afford a series of major changes in the architecture of their car that had to wait until 2024. Now . , according to Hamilton, They have a concrete path to follow and more certainty.

“I think now we have a North Star (to follow), something I think we’ve had these two years. But going there is not a straight line path. And there were certain things, decisions that were made, that just left you at the end of a road, and there’s nothing you can do because of the cost limit and all these different things.”

“If you look at Red Bull in Bahrain last year, they had a rebound problem and they fixed it that week. And to think, if you’re trying to build a wall, it’s brick by brick, development, development. , development. Maybe they added something and didn’t increase the performance. But they’re still building. Whereas for us, we had to tear down the wall, so to speak, in terms of aerodynamics. We had a lot of aerodynamics on that first car last year. We had to remove it. a ton of downforce and then try to add it slowly. But every time we tried to add it, it got worse. So we just didn’t do it, the improvement within long time.

“I think we understand the car a lot better. They’ve developed some great tools behind the scenes. So I’m naturally hopeful. But I can’t hold my breath.”

LOW CONFIDENCE

“You can imagine that they are also nervous about making massive changes and it’s wrong. And we have higher goals than before because we have a big gap to close (with Red Bull). That’s really complicated.

I CAN CLEARLY REACH AN AGREEMENT WITH MERCEDES

“When we were talking, I believed we could get there.”

TITLE MOTIVATION

“Winning the world championship is a big part of that drive… and continuing to build with the team in terms of impact work, continuing to push with the team with the Mission 44 (foundation). I don’t know if how far can I go and I’m trying to expand it, and that means I need to raise more money. I need to build a bigger team if I want to do more work. In Brazil, for example, in Africa. Getting of the Grand Prix in Africa is going to be big.”

I KNOW THE 2023 CAR IS NOT RIGHT

“I remember feeling exactly the same. And that definitely wasn’t a great feeling. I really had high hopes.”

In February, when we downloaded where the car was going, I was more worried, because last year I thought: ‘The car is incredible, it’s unique, no one else will have it.’ ‘ And then we got to the first test… So I was a bit cautious when I was listening and I thought: ‘Let’s see.’ And then the car had all these problems. “I know it’s going to be a long year.”

“I’m sure there were frustrations, because I asked for some changes and they weren’t made. My reaction was to have big, big conversations with the team. No one knew exactly what the problem was. No one knew how to solve it. Having the experience of the previous year, “I just made an effort to dig deeper and sit with the boys. Our meetings are better.”

“I was able to stay more positive throughout the year and say, ‘It’s going to be a long time, but let’s not give up. Let’s keep working to get the best out of the car, whatever that is.’ I think for this year they thought, ‘The basics are good and we just have to get here.’ And no, that’s why I was disappointed in February, because they didn’t make the changes that I asked for. But we didn’t necessarily have the North Star at the beginning of the year, knowing exactly where to go. “We have to work. It’s kind of a zigzag line trying to get to where we need to be.”