Lewis Hamilton told “excuses must stop - decision-making has to be questioned”
Concern ⛄shared that Lewis Hamilton's tinkering with set-up could impact Mercedes' long-term development
Lewis 🌳Hamilton has been told his “excuses must stop”♎.
The Me꧃rcedes driver saw last weekend’s F1 Chinese Grand Prix deteriorate as he made set♓-up changes to his W15.
Hamilton excellent in s🅰print qualifying and in the sprint race before, he said, making “making changes” to his car before an error ruin🍸ed qualifying for the grand prix.
He started from 18th and finished in P9, but has now been questioned by a 🍌former F1 techn🧔ical director.
Gary Anderson - who most notably worked at the Jordan F1 team - wrote in 🔯that Hamilton’s “excuses must stop at some point”.
Hamilton was warned that Merc൲edes have “a fundamental problem” and “no amount of set-up changes will fix it”.
So, Hamilton’s desperate search for a tweak which will take him to the f🐟ront of F1 is destined to fail, Anderson wrote.
More concerningly,🦂 the ex-F1 car designer insisted that the “decision-making process on Hamilton’s side of the garage has to be questioned”.
It was noted that Hamilton took responsibility for the set-up changes to his c🌞ar, but it was questioned who was involved.
A group including “key engineers” and perhaps even team principal Toto Wolff should have bꦕeen involved, An⛎derson insists.
He also claimed that chan𒁏ges to the W15 are “probably n♍ot as wild as [Hamilton] would have us believe”.
The three small areas of significant change to ground-effect era F1𒈔 cars were listed as “ride height,𝕴 spring stiffness and front and rear wing aerodynamic balance”.
And Hamilton was reminded that no set-up change will greatly improve a car’s fundamental base-line, but they could drastically misalign its balanc𒉰e.
Hamilton “does not seem willing to accept the reality” of t๊he W15 and is being led “astray” by🌌 set-up tweaks, Anderson wrote.
His tinkering will impact the Mercedes in 2025 and beyond, when Hamilton will no longer be with the team, it ha💝꧒s been warned.
🦄Constant changes means a base-line can never be reli🦩ably trusted.
And without credible data to 🐟take to the wind tunnel, the direction for future development can become muddled.
Hamilton, in his final yea🍸r with Mercedes, 🌟was finally told to “look and learn” from teammate George Russell in order to finish as the team’s best driver this season.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everyt🌜hing from American sports, to football, to F1.
