2R5M5HG HAMILTON Lewis (gbr), Mercedes AMG F1 Team W14, portrait MARKO Helmut (aut), Driversa€™ Manager of Red Bull Racing, portrait HORNER Christian (gbr), Team Principal of Red Bull Racing, portrait during the Formula 1 AWS Gran Premio de Espana 2023, 7th round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship from June 2 to 4, 2023 on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, in Montmelo, Spain - Photo: Dppi/DPPI/LiveMedia
Only the second winless season in his F1 career occurred for Hamilton in 2023, as former title contender Max Verstappen won the World Championship with ease.
Verstappen has won 44 of the last 66 races since the beginning of his rookie title-winning campaign in 2021, whereas Hamilton hasn’t triumphed since the Saudi Arabian round of that season.
In 2023, Hamilton occasionally found it difficult to control his annoyance with Mercedes’ circumstances. He said, during Bahrain’s first round of competition, that Mercedes’ technical staff had disregarded his advice over the W14 car’s design.
The seven-time world champion, meanwhile, stated following a brutal weekend in Japan that Mercedes needed “the greatest six months of development ever” in order to challenge Verstappen and Red Bull in 2024.
In a recent YouTube video, former Williams team manager Windsor, who won a championship, expressed his opinion that 38-year-old Hamilton has reached a point when he is unwilling to drive the car to its absolute maximum unless it can win races.
He also used the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, in which teammate George Russell finished third while Hamilton labored to eighth, as proof that he will not always be “absolutely out there at George pace” until the car meets a particular quality.
He stated: “One of the reasons Lewis has achieved such success is his high level of intelligence, which allows him to pace his life and career effectively and maintain his drive and motivation.”
“He did that really effectively. Over the years, he’s faced a lot of criticism for his lifestyle outside of Formula 1, especially from the British tabloid press.
“However, a lot of that has been Lewis realizing that he needs that or else it will overwhelm him, and I really admire that in Lewis.”
“I think the Lewis we’re witnessing right now is an intriguing one. Naturally, Lewis isn’t the same person I believe he was in 2007–2008.
If Lewis doesn’t feel totally at ease in the car, I don’t think he will risk everything, but if he does, I think he can still outrun George Russell in terms of speed.
“He seems that good to me. However, I believe that until the automobile is in good condition, he will no longer do it and won’t go as fast as George. That was observed in Abu Dhabi.
Following his assertion that Hamilton lacked Russell’s fearlessness during qualifying on the fast-paced Las Vegas street circuit, Windsor made recent remarks in which he implied that Russell was “absolutely on top of that Mercedes in a way, sadly, I don’t think Lewis Hamilton could ever do now.”
He continued by saying that Mercedes erred in selecting Russell to assume Valtteri Bottas’s seat in 2022, saying that every time his teammate hits a faster lap, “you can see it eating into Lewis’s self-confidence and doubt.”
After outscoring his teammate by 59 points, Hamilton finished third in the 2023 standings, five places ahead of Russell. This made him the top Mercedes driver.
