Speaking after finishing fifth at the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday, Hamilton called on his Mercedes team to take a big step forward in performance against Red Bull in the coming winter.
Lewis Hamilton’s ambitious hopes of developing Mercedes Formula 1 by 2024 are just a pipe dream.
That is the view of Gary Anderson, former director of automotive development for the Jordan and Jaguar F1 teams. This follows Hamilton’s comments following Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix.
The seven-time world champion finished fifth in that race, two places behind teammate George Russell. Both were nearly a minute behind Max Verstappen, who claimed his 13th win in 16 races this season. Speaking after the race, Hamilton said:
“I don’t know where the car will be next year, but we’re very, very far away. The next six months have to be the best six months of growth we’ve ever had to close that gap, if we really achieve the goal.” door.”
Anderson doesn’t think this is a realistic result for Mercedes. Writing for The Telegraph, he expressed doubts about the Silver Arrows’ chances of achieving significant improvements in the near future and believed they still did not have a clear understanding of their car’s weaknesses.
He wrote:
“You would expect a team of Mercedes’ stature, experience and budget – they are there to win, not to finish fifth and seventh – to improve their car in throughout the season, but this did not happen. That’s very unlikely. that the group will experience any magical developments during the winter. “Looking at the current rate of progress of the top 5 teams, I expect Mercedes to be the 4th fastest team early next year. You have to prove to yourself that you understand your problem and after 20 months 38 Since these ground effect rules came into effect, I have yet to see this. A team can’t just pin all their hopes on winter.
“Not much has changed since the beginning of last year. They seem to enter a race without knowing what will happen. If I were on the team, I wouldn’t have the confidence that the direction they’re going next year – whatever it is – is right. »
Mercedes are hoping to at least finish the season in second place with the constructors’ championship – Red Bull has already secured the title with six racing weekends remaining. But track technical director Andrew Shovlin has admitted his team does not currently have the second fastest car on the grid.
He said after the Suzuka race:
“The McLaren is a faster car. When your opponent is in front with a buffer car between you, you can’t really interact with them. Why is the McLaren fast? Well, I think the update done in Singapore doesn’t look big there. These are all low-speed corners. Here, everything moves at high speed. And you know, that’s something we saw them do really well in the last update in Austria. So for now, they just have a better car. »
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