LONDON:
Seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton said his Mercedes team had not listened to him in the development of their 2023 Formula One car. The Briton told reporters last week that Mercedes was on the wrong track before finishing fifth in Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix opener.
“Last year, there were things I told them. I said the issues that are in the car,” said Hamilton on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Checkered Flag podcast.
“I’ve driven a lot of cars in my life so I know what a car needs. I know what a car doesn’t need. I think it’s really about accountability. “About in possession and said, ‘Yes, you know what? We didn’t hear you. It’s not where it should be and we have to work,” he said. “We have to look at the balance through the corners, look at all the weak points, and just install a team. That’s what we do.”
Hamilton is Formula One’s most successful driver of all time, with 103 wins, but is out of contract at the end of the season.
The 38-year-old failed to win a race last year, a first for a season, but dismissed suggestions he might hold off on a new deal until he knows the competitive status of his car. He told the BBC that there is still time for Mercedes, which ended the eight constructors’ titles that ended last year, to return the situation.
“We’re still the world champions, you know? The only thing we haven’t got right now, we didn’t get right last year. ” he said.
Team manager Blood Wolff announced in Bahrain that Mercedes needed to rethink the car.
“I don’t think this package will be competitive later,” said the Austrian of a car that stands out for its lower models compared to Red Bull’s solution. “
We made a mistake last year, we thought we could fix it by sticking to this idea of the car and it didn’t work,” he added.
Red Bull’s second world championship Max Verstappen victory in Bahrain and Mexico Sergio Perez got one and two. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was third in a car powered by a Mercedes engine.
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