Lewis Hamilton joined Mercedes in 2013. He started winning titles with the team from 2014 onwards as the team produced a rocket of a power unit. In all, Lewis picked up 6 world championships and a whole lot of glory. This has been the most successful driver-team partnership in F1.
After years of success and joy, Lewis Hamilton is set to leave the team at the end of the 2024 F1 season. The season has been far from perfect for him. What’s worse is the unarguable tension between Lewis and Mercedes this year.
When Toto Wolff comes on the radio at the end of the F1 Canadian GP and tries to console Lewis for losing a podium, and all that he gets is a shake of the head, it’s safe to say that the divorce is heading towards a bitter end.
While there would be many Monday morning quarterbacks who would look at what’s happening and pick sides to put the blame on, the sad reality is that both Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes are responsible for what’s going to be an ugly divorce.
Why it is Lewis Hamilton’s fault
Subtle comments about foul play
On Lewis Hamilton’s side, something that has been quite surprising for anyone keeping track of his comments is the subtle accusations of foul play against Mercedes. This has also seemingly intensified in the last couple of races in Monaco and Canada.
In Monaco, Lewis Hamilton surprised everyone when he said that he didn’t expect to beat George Russell in qualifying throughout the season. Then, when he was asked to expand on it later in the weekend, he opted not to. To add to this, he said that George had the upgraded front wing while he didn’t at Monaco, leaving out the part that he himself had opted out of it.
Coming to Canada as well, talking about his qualifying, where George Russell got pole and he couldn’t do better than P7, Lewis said his tires out of the blanket were not up to the temperature, even though he didn’t put that as the reason for his result.
The issue with such statements is that after a while they start looking deliberate, and for a team like Mercedes that is already desperate to get back to the front, it’s an added PR battle that it doesn’t want to waste time on.
The highly toxic fanbase
The second, and arguably the ugly side of F1 is the toxic fanbase that comes with it. It’s safe to assume that Lewis Hamilton might have one of the more aggressive fanbases in F1 and the sheer volume with which Mercedes has been attacked on social media and even on LinkedIn was eye-opening.
Catering to the massive fanbase has been beneficial for the brand when the team was winning, but as soon as things are not going their way, the fans have turned. The backlash that the team is getting from the fans has been aided by some of the subtle comments from Lewis Hamilton himself.
So much so that fans crying ‘sabotage’ has become frequent. The social media backlash against Mercedes is public news and it’s not as if Lewis Hamilton isn’t aware of it. The fact that he is yet to clear the air between the team and the fans is just another example of things not being in a good place between the two parties.
Why it is Mercedes’ fault
The team’s communication is poor
One has to question Mercedes on why the social media team was so ill-informed about Lewis already bringing a trophy for the team in China’s sprint and why Jenson Button knew before the German unit, that Lewis had become the longest-racing British F1 driver.
At the same time, one has to question why Mercedes is found unable to quell some of these sabotage allegations. The best and worst part of social media is that if you put out a piece of information, it will reach a massive audience.
Mercedes has opted not to put out information on why Lewis Hamilton was not pitted for a scrubbed medium tire in the final stint in Canada or addressed whether there is any rift between the team and the driver.
On the contrary, the social media team went on a spree of unfollowing Lewis Hamilton fan accounts, which was just a counterproductive action with no upside whatsoever.
The team either needs to ensure that the right message is sent out, or needs to put out a united front with the outgoing driver. At the moment, it hasn’t done either of the two.
The team has next to no fan presence
Toto Wolff and Mercedes are facing a crude realization where they are starting to find out that the team has not built an organic fanbase in the last decade or so. A massive volume of the ‘fans’ or ‘followers’ that adorned the team merchandise over the last decade or so were not won over by the team’s excellence.
They were there because of Lewis Hamilton, and now that the star driver is leaving, the brand is looking at a massive exodus of fans that has either already turned on them, or are on the verge of turning on them. If the team had focused on making ‘Mercedes’ an iconic name in the sport instead of making it all about the star driver, it would not have found itself in this situation.
As it turns out, the closer Lewis Hamilton’s exit from the team is, the bigger the online discord the team will face. For a team that had the most dominant and longest reign in F1, the fact that it cannot bank on its fans is a disastrous error.
Why this can’t be stopped now
George Russell will continue beating Lewis Hamilton
The biggest problem for Lewis Hamilton at this stage is that Mercedes has a driver in George Russell who is driving brilliantly. He is one of the stars of the future and has taken the 2024 F1 season to be the time when he takes over from his experienced teammate.
The season has seen George go 8-1 against Lewis in qualifying, and 7-2 in the races. That is a one-sided mauling of a talent as good as Hamilton. Since the start of the season, there have been reasons and, for lack of a better word, excuses, that have come from the Hamilton camp. Ranging from experimental set-ups to claims of the other driver getting the upgrade and so on, there has been a lot of stuff that has been said to the media.
The fact of the matter is that George is dialed in at Mercedes this season, while Lewis already has a leg out of the door. The commitment and the mindset are just not the same, and when you have two brilliant drivers in the team, these things make a difference.
Lewis Hamilton is a competitor who would never be happy losing to his teammate, and if it is becoming a regularity, that is only going to increase the tension.
Mercedes will lean towards George Russell more and more
Ever since Lewis Hamilton joined Mercedes, he has been the team leader. He was the benchmark, the driver that the team tried to get behind. The 2024 F1 season is different in that respect. Lewis has announced that he’s leaving the team.
When that happens, the driver who will continue to be part of the team will take precedence when it comes to feedback and even other things like getting the upgrade first. For Lewis, this has already been a cultural shock this season, and when this continues, it’s only going to make the outgoing driver even more uncomfortable within the team.
Why it is sad to see
Finally, the problem with all of this is that it’s a sad end to a partnership between an iconic driver and team. The two have won 6 world titles for the driver, and in terms of success, no team has achieved this much with a driver. The divorce just could have been smooth had things gone along as usual, but the manner in which George has flipped the script and stepped up, Lewis has been caught in the backfoot where he’s getting dominated by his teammate.
Lewis is finding it hard to accept that George is beating him every weekend. This tension between the driver and the team is only going to lead to a sad end to what was a partnership that was a dream come true for anyone involved.