Hamilton, results at peak
“It was one of my worst races ever“, commented a disappointed person Lewis Hamilton on the sidelines of the fourth place obtained in Canada behind teammate George Russell.
Finishing behind Russell is certainly nothing new for Hamilton in this first glimpse of 2024given that the young Briton put the seven-time world champion behind him with a certain continuity: in 8 out of 9 qualifying sessions and in 6 GPs out of the 8 completed by both.
In short, the cold numbers say that Mercedes has a new reference driver in this championship, the 26-year-old Russell, who is taking first driving honors in the field, while the 39-year-old Hamilton seems to be losing ground quite decisively. The experienced champion, in the previous two years with his teammate, had maintained an advantage in qualifying (23-21), as well as in the race (21-16), but in recent months however the collapse of results in the internal duel was vertical.
| Hamilton-Russell | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
| Qualifications | 12-10 | 11-11 | 1-8 |
| Competition | 9-11 | 12-5 | 2-6 |
| Points | 240-275 | 234-175 | 55-69 |
The ghost of the Mercedes sabotage
As reported in recent weeks, already in Monte Carlo Hamilton had complained about losing “suddenly” two tenths right in the crucial qualifying phase and had suggested that beat Russell in qualifying it would have been “pretty hard” for the rest of the championship. In short, Lewis Hamilton had evoked the ghost of a certain team favoritism towards George Russell, a prospect that could also make sense given the British champion’s move to Ferrari in 2025.
Theme has become even more topical a Montreal, where Hamilton was very fast until FP3 (ending ahead of everyone), only to then collapse in Q3. If Russell managed to get a good pole, Lewis put in his worst qualifying ever in Canada, obtaining the seventh time at 0 “280 from his teammate. “The car didn’t feel the same as the rest of the weekend“, he whispered on Saturday, becoming more precise after the race: “Every time I came out of the pits, for some reason the tires were always below temperature. Each set was 2 or 3 degrees lower than it should have been.”. Furthermore, declarations went unnoticed in most specialized newspapers, especially the English and German ones.
As for the controversy over the final part of the race, with Mercedes putting Hamilton on Hard rubber and Russell on Medium at the stop on lap 54, it must be said that Lewis no longer had new Medium compound tires available. In this regard, Hamilton in fact said: “If I had known that I would have been fitted with Hard tyres, I would have stayed out“.
At the start of the race the two Mercedes drivers both had 2 sets of Hard and 1 set of new Mediums available. On lap 43 Hamilton had mounted the Medium, while on lap 45 Russell had the Hard; at the last stop Mercedes then reversed the choice between the team’s two standard bearers.
Social media in turmoil
All around, many other small clues of a rather singular situation between Hamilton and Mercedes. Starting from the driver’s failure to respond to Wolff’s radio comment at the end of the race and his words to the journalists: “I can’t wait to go home“, to get to the Mercedes social networks: first the ‘forgetfulness’ of Hamilton’s second place among the trophies obtained in 2024 (later corrected), and subsequently the decision to hide all comments critical of the team and in support of Hamilton and to unfollow all fan accounts of the British champion.
An attitude that obviously inflamed social media, making the conspiracy theory go viral.
And thus another missed celebration on Mercedes social media also emerged: the record, broken by Hamilton in Montreal, of the British driver with the longest career in F1, 17 years, 2 months and 22 days.
Even the dirty mirrors…
Finally – to add further pepper – the bizarre radio team out in the morning from the Formula 1 accounts, which reports a conversation between Hamilton and Peter Bonnington, his race engineer, on lap 56: “You haven’t cleaned my mirrors again! I can not see anything“, “Sorry Lewis, but you have the pace of the cars behind you, so let’s look ahead”. George Russell would then overtake Hamilton for third on lap 69 – having previously finished behind his teammate when cutting the chicane.
That Hamilton arrives at Ferrari?
In short, on the one hand a clear decline in terms of results, on the other a Hamilton who seems rather frustrated and who seems to indicate – at least – less than optimal support from Mercedes. A marriage that seems to be falling apart after 6 drivers’ world titles, 82 victories and 78 pole positions together.
Is the driver in decline or is he objectively put in a bad light by the Silver Arrows, disappointed by his escape to Ferrari? Will the Prancing Horse logo be enough to revitalize and motivate the 39-year-old English champion?
