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.
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 was. Everyone’s heads were down, everyone was at their stations and clearly pushing incredibly hard.”
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Drop Saudi
22nd February 2024, 8:12
A race tech shouldn’t ever tell a driver they are wrong about the car, even if they are. You really need to placate them, or lie if you have to, but don’t tell them they are wrong unless you want to lose them.
S
22nd February 2024, 9:45
Race drivers need to be reminded of their place in the team occasionally too. Drivers are rarely super strong on the engineering side of things – they know what they want but not necessarily how to get it, or even if it’s possible to have it with the machine they’ve already produced.
Honesty is usually the best policy here – telling the driver they can have something/everything they want and then not giving it to them is essentially treating them like a complete fool, and that certainly won’t make them happy, will it..? All it will achieve is to break any trust between the driver and the team.
And which F1 driver, more than any other, says F1 is all about the collective team? Yep, Lewis Hamilton. Especially when things aren’t going well….
grat
22nd February 2024, 17:26
But the engineer is totally lacking on knowledge of how the car handles. When the driver tells you the car drives like a dump truck on ice skates, you might want to reconsider your preconceived notions.
Ideally, you want both sides to listen to the other– Allison obviously listened, Elliot didn’t.
S
23rd February 2024, 6:55
The engineer may not know how it feels – but he certainly knows what the data says, and that tends to reveal more than the driver can these days, and in a lot less time.
Every driver is unsatisfied with how their car performs and feels a lot of the time – what ultimately matters is the stopwatch over the defined distance and how it compares to everyone else.
An uncomfortable can can be fast, just as a comfortable car can be well off the pace.
David BR (@david-br)
24th February 2024, 22:10
Clearly that attitude worked really well for Mercedes. Who needs a 7/8-time champion or their feedback anyhow?
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
22nd February 2024, 18:51
this is the kind of attitude people have when they are afraid of losing their job. Valid criticism/arguments are never unwarranted. The problem with modern schooling is it teaches people to be ignorant to proper critical thinking, ignores things like mathematical proofs and focuses more keenly on rote learning levels, ie, just repeat what you are told.
Technicians typically have very specific roles and probably are not the ones who should be taking down feedback, this kind of stuff should be in a board room, where people discuss performance, draw up timetables and focus on the process of engineering the system as a whole.
drmouse (@drmouse)
22nd February 2024, 23:40
I’ll admit that it’s been a while since I was in school, I left in 2000. However, that’s the opposite of the trajectory things had been on before. If you go back to the 80s and earlier, according to everyone I’ve spoken to, there was a massive focus on leaning by rote, just learning how to do someone without understanding the reason why. By the time I was in high school in the 90s, far more time was spent understanding why.
I also have friends with children on high school now (in the UK), and when they describe their lessons, show me their homework etc, it doesn’t seem like they’ve gone backwards. They still seem to be being taught the why with the how, and there is very little rote learning.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
23rd February 2024, 17:50
lets just say I went to a nice school back in 2010, and it was very difficult. But, if you were in one of the nice ‘brotherhoods’ (frat) you had a much better time at understanding what to expect on tests. Every test I took at the school required me to declare I was not cheating. The classes were not impossible, and not terrible if you studied, but sometimes if the information was foreign, you were only going to get by if you studied and applied yourself considerably. I saw a lot of people who did not apply themselves, who in future classes could not use information from previous classes, or integrate ‘that’ information well.
Im just saying, teachers say they are trying to climb Bloom’s Taxonomy, but =reality= points to a lot of back-of-the book shenanigans, and people who forget a lot of what they learn, let alone learn how to apply more advanced concepts, typically because they want the diploma more than they can afford to spend many many nights at the top of the library studying their butts off. There are some who could, and those guys get all the props, and deserve everything they get.
Sonny Crockett (@sonnycrockett)
22nd February 2024, 8:16
If a Hamilton, Alonso or Vettel tells you that you’re heading in the wrong direction, you listen.
lucifer (@lucifer)
22nd February 2024, 11:41
agree
Riccard
22nd February 2024, 8:23
The Mercedes engineers must be gutted now Red Bull have moved in the direction they abandoned.
So close, but too divided to get over the line. Or just lacking a Newey.
Optimaximal (@optimaximal)
22nd February 2024, 9:38
But they haven’t moved in the direction they abandoned. The Mercedes design involved a completely zero structure design (where all the airflow was supposed to head to the floor) whereas Red Bull have always maintained some sidepod structure.
The only vague convergence is the vertical inlets, but in RB’s case we know that it’s a combination of vertical and horizontal inlets and, based on Gary Anderson’s analysis, it seems the vertical inlets are more about controlling the airflow under the sidepod rather than explicit cooling.
I don’t think anyone at Mercedes is looking at the design thinking ‘How did Adrian make our design work’. If anything, they’re more likely looking at the design of the engine cover, seeing how other teams have followed them to the more centralised/hunchback design.
Bob
22nd February 2024, 9:55
But the red bulls side pobs look absolutely nothing like the 2022 – 2023 merc…. Red Bull has not tried to recreate the zeropod here, rather it’s a hybrid solution marries a wider, high-waisted, extreme undercut, downwashing ramp solution with a vertical inlet.
AlexS
22nd February 2024, 22:33
Don’t believe too much what journalists say. Ferrari for exemple have had the vertical inlet for 1 or 2 years and no ones talks about it.
CarWars (@maxv)
22nd February 2024, 8:43
They told em he was wrong, so he left.
Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
22nd February 2024, 8:54
Lewis Hamilton, February 6th 2022 – ““My team don’t make mistakes”
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
22nd February 2024, 12:14
I guess after the many years of dominance, he trusted they’d get a good car again, when they didn’t he changed his mind.
Chris
22nd February 2024, 15:22
And wouldn’t you .
T
22nd February 2024, 14:55
Hamilton continued, “Of course, there is always a risk, but we don’t make mistakes. There’s a lot of very intelligent people back at the factory and I trust them 100 per cent. Whatever we start with today, whether it’s good or bad, we’ll work through it. We’ve always had a great development plan and workforce. Whatever we start with today, whether it’s good or bad, we’ll work through it. I think every year’s exciting, but of course (in) previous years, it was an evolution of the previous year’s car; in this one, it’s completely brand-new.
Of course, I’ve seen the designs of our car over several months, but now to see everyone’s car out there, you’re trying to get a close eye to see what is different, if there is anything, why certain teams have chosen a certain route in terms of sidepod design, front wing and the floor. So I think it’s the most exciting (pre-season), and again, you have absolutely no idea where you stand.”
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
22nd February 2024, 9:55
Sorry, but no driver can predict the development trajectory of a car concept. They can ofc give feedback on the car’s current performance and limitations, and clearly the W12 and early W13 had issues, but the driver has no real idea of the development potential from an engineering perspective. Hamilton may or may not have been correct to push the team to abandon their original concept and change direction, but we’ll never know where they would be this year or next if they had stuck with it.
Now it seems like Red Bull have adopted some designs that are not dissimilar to some of Mercedes’ concepts. Perhaps if Mercedes had stayed on the same path, they could have solved their issues and got a jump on the opposition. Now, they are locked into playing catch-up on a concept that Redbull have had a good understanding of since the beginning of the regulations, had perhaps approached the limit of, and have subsequently evolved into something likely even better.
Coventry Climax
22nd February 2024, 11:57
I remember joking in a comment, back then, that Hamilton would have a choice of engineering jobs at any of the teams, after sharing his profound engineering expertise.
Other than that, in my opinion, over the past two years, we’ve seen ample signs that Mercedes have no real, deeper understanding of getting all the aero (both over and under the car) to work together. Even if there’s engineers understanding their parts, there seems to be no understanding, no decisive force or authority, or even consensus, on how to join it all together.
When you’re at a loss, that’s when trying to go back to the fork in the road where you lost your way makes perfect sense.
What amazes me most is that there’s no stories whatsoever of them hiring true expertise, say, from the aeronautical industry. They’re there alright.
Ultimately though, whichever way you look at it, they’ve been out-engineered by the competition.
I know, quite a few don’t like that, but it is what’s made F1 F1 all those years.
Emma
22nd February 2024, 18:51
And yet, they ended up second in the Championship despite their lack of real, deep understanding and lousy hiring. I wonder what says about the 8 teams that they beat?
Tristan (@skipgamer)
22nd February 2024, 10:17
I mean this all played out publicly anyway, over the radio, in interviews, but sure, good that it’s in DtS I guess?
Coventry Climax
22nd February 2024, 11:37
And that’s where I stopped reading.
Treating DTS as a reliable news source now? What a joke.
Sham (@sham)
22nd February 2024, 12:20
Well, its no different to most “news” outlets treating Twitter as a source – as they have been for years.
Journalism ≠ Media hype or rumour mills.
LosD (@losd)
22nd February 2024, 13:47
You’re saying that an actual interview is less reliable because it appeared on DtS? Sure, things can be taken out of context, but that’s seems like pretty complete sentences.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
22nd February 2024, 15:38
No, reporting what Lewis Hamilton said verbatim, and crediting who he said it to.
Coventry Climax
22nd February 2024, 16:12
Then start your articles saying that?
I might read further then.
T
22nd February 2024, 20:50
First sentence of the article states who is the subject is, what the object is, and the origin:
Second sentence paraphrases/summarizes the quote:
Third sentence begins the quote:
What exactly are you asking of Keith?
Zann (@zann)
22nd February 2024, 12:30
James and Adrian do suspension and aero, Mike Elliott only did aero and I bet this is what Lewis could feel.
And obviously the aeros are much smarter than Lewis academically and he’s even dyslexic isn’t he, so you can imagine how easy they’d find it to dismiss his feelings, but actually he has a lot of more intuitive kind of non-verbal knowledge
Gigantor (@kbdavies)
22nd February 2024, 17:00
Being dyslexic doesn’t make you less intelligent, so i don’t understand why anyone would dismiss what a dyslexic person would say, merely on the basis of their condition.
Would you?
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
22nd February 2024, 18:56
Mike was probably more of a numbers guy then someone who has a fundamental understanding of the way fluid mechanics works. For example look at the difference between the bazookas on the red bull vs Mercedes, at least RB had the decency to point them down before the rear wing, Mercedes just shot all that crap straight back, very close to the rear wing. Also the glaring deficiency of destroying the power unit’s ability to move heat away in the more cramped design, where as RBR were more conservative and took labors to improve the forward facing vents.
Mercedes 22-23 was a half baked concept which should have never been approved for business. There is an art to engineering systems, and I would hazard a lot of the talent Merc had, dried up while political correctness took over long in to their reign of winning over and over again, and they forgot basic common sense.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
22nd February 2024, 19:00
also, while there is a lot to be gleamed from data science, especially with respect to ‘time’, and what can be known. It is ultimately a virtual interface which assumes that the data going in to that process is ‘good’. Lots of scientists these days forgo the ‘good’ data idea, especially when it comes to running their mouths about politically charged’ topics.
amped
22nd February 2024, 15:12
Hmm let’s see, who are the team going to listen to more? Their highly skilled engineers who went to University for years to learn their specialisms, or the driver who missed school to go racing?
Gigantor (@kbdavies)
22nd February 2024, 17:01
We now know who they should have listened to, don’t we??
Gigantor (@kbdavies)
22nd February 2024, 17:05
Sometimes, experts suffer tunnel vision and are unable to think outside the box of their expertise. This is a very well known and well researched phenomenon.
Remember, when nutritionists said eggs were bad for you? Or when doctors said there was nothing wrong with smoking?
Yeah… they were experts too.
RH
22nd February 2024, 21:03
Hamilton is obviously the highest paid person in all of F1 and will be paid 50m from this year. That’s a significant chunk of the budget cap these days and I am sure his expertise equivalent to that of 100s of engineers will magically make Mercedes this year title contender, like it did last couple of years.
In F1, driver feedback is one of the more overrated aspects. Drivers cant control how fast the car basically can go. It’s an engineering competition, but obviously a good chunk of driver fans cannot understand such things, and so it goes.
T
22nd February 2024, 21:10
this is a crazy take but hear me out, maybe they take in input from the dropout who has been driving formula one cars for sixteen years.
but hey, that’s just like my crazy take, it’s not like the “highly skilled engineers” had to do an about face – oh wait…
Aquila_GD
22nd February 2024, 17:07
Interesting how an engineer who does not frive a car can think he can do without a driver’s input.
Recipe for disaster. Aint it?
Edvaldo
22nd February 2024, 17:30
well, everybody was quite surprised when they launched that car last year under the same failed concept and after like 2 days of testing they basically write off the season as it was clear it was another dog.
Now they’re taking the step they should’ve taken a year ago.
iCarbs (@icarby)
22nd February 2024, 21:11
I remember most of the press conferences but the video from Mercedes that stuck with me was the one titled Road to 2022: Setting the scene for F1’s New Era, hosted by James Allison. He made a comment on either getting the regulations “really badly wrong”… and “having a terribly painful year”…
I suspect he wasn’t in agreement with the direction taken at the time…