The new series of Drive to Survive reveals how Lewis Hamilton’s relationship with Mercedes became strained before he decided to leave.
The seven-times world champion was frustrated by the team’s failure to act on his warnings about their first car built for the technical regulations Formula 1 introduced in 2022.
“I remember complaining to the team and being like, look, we have to make these changes, otherwise this is the trajectory we’re going to go on and this is where we’re going to end up,” he told the programme makers. “Please, please do something about it.
“I remember they said, like, we know what we’re doing, you’re wrong. And that was definitely an interesting moment. I was like, okay, I’ll step back, don’t want to step on anybody’s toes. Then when we got into the season, then we spoke again [they said] ‘oh, maybe you were right.”
Mercedes have only won a single race over the past two seasons with the W13 and its conceptually similarly successor. Early last year the team confirmed it had changed the philosophy behind its new car for 2024, which Hamilton is testing for the first time today. Technical director Mike Elliott left the team last year and his predecessor, James Allison, returned to the role.
The new series of Drive to Survive was completed before Hamilton announced he will leave Mercedes at the end of this year. His destination is Ferrari.
He told media including RaceFans last year Mercedes were consulting him and team mate George Russell more closely on their plans for the new W15.
“I do continue to have lots of meetings back to the factory on so many different topics about the car, whether it’s ride quality, whether its vehicle dynamics, whether it’s suspension, whether it’s steering, whether it’s about tyres, whatever it may be,” he said. “So we’ll continue to have that and I think we have a better process than we’ve ever had before.
“So it’s much more engaging for both George and I. We often have meetings where we’re both in that room together so we’re able to really deep-dive on any questions that the engineers don’t potentially get to come to the grands prix, if they’ve had any questions they can ask.”
“The other day I went to the aero department,” he added. “It’s clear that no one’s happy with where we are and how we’ve done this year, but it was massively encouraging to see how driven everyone…
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