Lewis Hamilton ‘scored a point’ against Mercedes with scathing W14 criticism

1996 World Champion Damon Hill believes Lewis Hamilton has taken a 1-0 lead against Mercedes as driver and team combine to try and end Red Bull’s dominance.

Since the end of the 2021 season Mercedes have just one Grand Prix win to their name courtesy of George Russell in Brazil, a shadow of the team that had such a firm grip on the sport throughout the 2014-2021 turbo hybrid era.

Choosing the wrong development path is the ultimate reason behind Mercedes’ demise, but Hill believes comments initially made by Lewis Hamilton earlier this year has now put the Silver Arrows on the correct route to restoring former glory.

Lewis Hamilton 1-0 Mercedes

“He knows that the team has got his back, they know what they’ve got with him and they will give him everything he possibly can,” Hill told Express Sport.

“He’s scored a point a bit this year because he’s got them to admit they’ve made a mistake. They’ve changed direction and they’re now heading in what seems to be the right direction and he’s driving better now as well.

“It could be that he could have a car that he can contend for the championship with next year.”

The topic of F1 2024 is particularly important in matters concerning Hamilton as, at the time of writing, there is still no confirmation from Mercedes that Hamilton has signed an extension to his current deal which is set to expire at the end of the season.

Toto Wolff recently revealed,虽然自己之间的对话and Hamilton have been straightforward throughout, the negotiations do start to get complicated when the lawyers and agents start to get involved.

But, regardless of those complications, everything currently still points to Hamilton continuing with Mercedes for at least another year.

What did Lewis Hamilton say about the Mercedes W14?

Cast your mind back to early March at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. Max Verstappen cruised to his first win of the season as he made the perfect start to defending his World Championship crown while, 50 seconds down the road, Lewis Hamilton limped home in a P5 finish which set the alarms off at Mercedes.

Hamilton would play his part in making it abundantly clear that his team had got their design philosophy wrong and, even more frustratingly, had pre-warned them.

“Last year, I told them the issues that are with the car,” Hamilton told BBC Sport. “Like, I’ve driven so many cars in my life, so I know what a car needs, I know what a car doesn’t need.

对问责制”,我认为这是真的,这s about owning up and saying ‘yeah, you know what, we didn’t listen to you, it’s not where it needs to be and we’ve got to work’.

“We’ve got to look into the balance through the corners, look at all the weak points and just huddle up as a team, that’s what we do.

“We’re still multi World Champions you know, it’s just they haven’t got it right this time, they didn’t get it right last year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get it right moving forwards.”