Sadly, Sir Lewis Hamilton still remains winless after the Dutch Grand Prix 2023 as Mercedes faced more woes in their already troubled season. On the other hand, Max Verstappen won again and equaled Sebastian Vettel’s record. Fernando Alonso finished at P2, while the other Red Bull driver, Sergio Perez, finished at P4. But great news came for the Alpine team as Pierre Gasly got their second podium this season, finishing third at Zandvoort. It was Gasly’s first podium of the season.
But according to Lewis Hamilton, he could’ve done a lot better if it were not for the assessment of the weather. The British driver did not have any more trouble with the car than they already were facing throughout the season. But what went so wrong for Mercedes in the Dutch Grand Prix? It was the weather forecast of the team. Both George Russell and Hamilton blamed the team for miscalculating the duration of the rain. After the race, Lewis acknowledged that he had to pay the price for the strategy blunder of his team at Zandvoort.
The Weather Forecast Cost Lewis Hamilton And George Russell A Podium At Zandvoort
The Brackley team initially thought that the rain would go only for a couple of minutes. But it went on for a much longer period of time. Lewis Hamilton noted the same that they did not pit when they had to. Surprisingly, the seven-time champion revealed how he was on the same pace as his rival, Max Verstappen. However, the strategy blunder just cost him the position. At one point, both Hamilton and Russell fell down to 13th and 17th place after the weather forecast mishap caught them off guard.
However, Lewis Hamilton managed to climb up to the sixth place. And despite the kind of result team Mercedes had at the end, the British driver was happy with his drive, but he sure could have done a lot better. On the radio, George Russell also said, “I expected a podium at Zandvoort. But how did we mess this up?” Citing the same, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff also added that the weather forecast was catastrophically wrong. The Mercedes team acknowledged that the race was over even before it started.
Mercedes Is Just Having A Season Of Bad Luck
Clearly, things are just not going in the way the Brackley team wanted it to go. The goal for team Mercedes remains to be their first win of the season. Apparently, nobody knows when Lewis Hamilton or George Russell will end on the podium once again, let alone if they can win a race this season. Clearly, the RB19 is too fast for Mercedes’s W14. While Max Verstappen, driving RB19, stays unbeaten for the last nine occasions, the performance of the W14 keeps fluctuating this season.
Since the Monaco Grand Prix, the Silver Arrows introduced many new upgrades, but it still did not result in a win. Instead, the car gained a little bit more reliability and stability than before. They even expected the drivers to get better results in the Dutch Grand Prix. But what happened is just more misery for Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton finished at P6 while George Russell at P17. The 25-year-old Mercedes driver had to retire after puncturing his car from contact with Lando Norris.