Lewis Hamilton is a seven-time world champion but has failed to win a race since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. In February, it was announced that he will leave Mercedes in favour of Ferrari for the 2025 season onwards. Former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has told Best Payout Online Slots that he believes Hamilton is now bored with Mercedes, and explains why.
'Lewis at Mercedes is now stale'
Hamilton joined Mercedes in 2013, and has won six Drivers Championships with the team, as well as eight Constructors. However, in February, the shock announcement came that the Brit would be leaving the team, which has seemed to have struggled since the 2022 regulation changes. This season, Mercedes currently sits in fourth in the championship, with Hamilton's teammate frequently outperforming him. In the Drivers championship, George Russell sits in seventh, whilst Hamilton sits 12 points behind in eighth.
Nonetheless, Villeneuve can see why: "You get bored with the same taste over and over again. That taste for Lewis at Mercedes is now stale. Every driver has a preference with their car. Max will be quick in any car but he will be quicker in a car that suits him. Lewis is in the situation where the car is not doing what he is expecting it to, so he is always second guessing."
"There is always more thought process going into his driving which can leave you a thousandth of a second behind and that will make you just that little bit slower. It makes it very difficult to set the car up because you cannot pinpoint what the issue is. That is an issue that has developed over the past few years," he added.
Hamilton's results started to improve in China. The Brit finished second in the sprint race but made a key mistake in qualifying and started the Grand Prix towards the back of the grid. He made a good recovery drive to score two points in the Sunday race. From then on, Hamilton has finished inside the top seven, beating his teammates in Miami and Imola.
Tick tok, tick tok.
Why is everyone overlooking the one obvious factor on why his performance is deteriorating?
Time waits for no one and no body can deny the ageing process.
As we get older, muscles deteriorates. Reflex actions slows down. Our strength lessens. Our mental alertness is no longer what it is when we were younger.
At 39 years old, he is no longer the Hamilton that was crushing the competition like he was 5 years ago.
That is why since 2022, his performance has dropped off significantly compared to before that.
Many puts it down to the Mercedes not being that dominating anymore in the new regulation era, but they don't factor in his ageing process as well.
Why has Russell doing better than Hamilton since they became team mates? No doubt Russell is a very talented driver, but the drop off in Hamilton's performance also plays a part in why we see a head to head qualifying of 7 to 1 in favour of George currently.
Someone can be 50yrs and have the metabolism of a 30yr old. It all depends on how u keep yourself and f1 drivers definitely do a good job in that. Ofc the ageing process is inevitable but it can be prolonged. The 7-1 in quali looks worse than it is because some of those are less than a tenth, and 7-1 in quali but only 12 points ahead speaks for itself. Everyone knows Russell is a quali driver hence the name Mr Saturday from his time at Williams. I'm sure with a better performing car Ham will be up there with Ver and Lec. The races when Mercedes actually perform, he's right there with them
Lewis has been playing with the setup to get back to the front, Russell is happy to be there, happy to be in a Top team after several years at Williams. Simply put Russell is driving around the problems of car as 3rd place or whatever for him is great! Lewis been trying to find key to unlock car to "win" . Maybe that was a mistake? I don't know.
Lewis bored of merc because they not build him a fast car in the new regs and got it wrong .and he leave go to ferrari because has better car .but then toto was say there pu for 2026 would be better than all the other teams .but guss lewis knows it not and he not enjoying getting beat by his team mate .but will lewis get his form back when join ferrari ? He will have get use to new car and how team work .
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