Lewis Hamilton shares why he’s ‘obviously not happy’ with 2024 Mercedes F1 car

Follow us on Google Discover

Lewis Hamilton hasn’t had the easiest start to the 2024 season and has explained what he thinks has been going wrong with this season’s Mercedes.

The seven-time world champion is ninth in the Drivers’ Championship after two races and only two points ahead of stand-in driver Oliver Bearman.

Speaking ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, via the official Formula 1 website, Hamilton was positive about the team’s chances but explained what steps are now being taken.

Hamilton explains what’s wrong with 2024 Mercedes F1 car

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was clear at the end of last season that the team had work to do to close the gap to Red Bull after their incredible 2023 campaign.

After qualifying in Abu Dhabi, the 52-year-old said: “I’m fed up with having explanations why it didn’t go well.

“We were good in the hot, we weren’t in the cold, the previous day it was the other way around.”

They arrived in Sakhir for pre-season but the car already looked ‘very difficult’ to drive but George Russell qualified in third suggesting the car could be closer to Red Bull and Ferrari.

However, both cars finished behind their two biggest rivals, even though Ferrari had serious brake issues.

Saudi Arabia went even worse for Mercedes with Lewis Hamilton the lowest-finishing driver from the top five teams, although that was partly because he gambled on his strategy.

Hamilton has now explained what’s wrong with his car and what Mercedes are now doing to resolve those problems.

Mercedes have work to do to fix W15 woes

Talking ahead of the race in Melbourne, Hamilton said: “I do think we have an amazing car and it has a lot of potential in it – we just haven’t maximised it through set-up, through mistakes and we are obviously not happy with the performance in the first two races but there is potential we haven’t extracted yet.

“So, everyone’s focus is understanding the car. I feel positive for this weekend, there is a long way ahead.”

Hamilton won’t have to put up with the current problems Mercedes are dealing with for much longer.

The Brackley-based team have been wrestling with the same ‘fundamental’ problems for years and don’t look any closer to knowing how to fix them.

They appear to be ‘at least a year’ behind some of their rivals at the moment and they might already be looking forward to 2026 when the regulations change so that they can have a fresh start.

Mercedes have been under the impression that they’ve fixed the problems in high-speed areas before, but the work they’re doing on the simulator isn’t being reflected when they take to the track.

It could leave Hamilton very frustrated as he will be desperate to end his time with Mercedes on a high after winning six titles with the team.

Instead, he may reflect on his last three years with a tinge of sadness having not stood on the top step of the podium since Jeddah in 2021.