Looking at the struggles of Lewis Hamilton alone, knowing that George Russell does not feel that bad about the W14, fans started questioning, “Is the team giving a crappy car to Hamilton [only]?”
Lewis Hamilton embarked on the 2023 F1 season with P5. He claimed P5 again in the second race at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Fans can see the seven-time world champion struggling with the weak cars Mercedes has provided him since 2022. During the qualifying session at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Hamilton was in a complicated situation with the W14 car. Yet he managed to get a P7 which was actually a P8 (Charles Lecerc’s penalty helped).
Now, given the above, a question emerges. Was the W14 the same difficult for Hamilton’s teammate George Russell too, in Jeddah? No, for Russell, the car was a lot improved. Russell started the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix form P3 four positions ahead of Lewis, which came with a 0.4s gap.
George Russell is not satisfied, of course. But he is a little happy and optimistic about Mercedes’s future. He even revealed the pace Mercedes has in the locker. Also, last year, when Lewis Hamilton was mourning for how his 15 years of winning streaks got shattered, Russell was enjoying his first formula one win ever. The seven-time world champion was told that he would be served with a strong car in 2023 when he questioned on the team that a car like W13 is not what he signed for. But did he even get that car? NO! With the W14, all that the Britons could achieve was disappointments, fake promises, and humiliation. The humiliation of getting overpassed by Aston Martin and his own teammate.
Is Mercedes Making A Way Out For Mick Schumacher By Providing Crappy Cars To Lewis Hamilton?
With this, if fans start doubting Mercedes for doing things purposefully, what wrong do they do? One of the fans who can notice that George was 0.4 seconds ahead of Hamilton last weekend, which almost led him to the podium, says, “Are they [the Mercedes team] providing you a crappy car in order to make a way out for Mick Schumacher?“ What is the deal [exactly]? Is the edge lost?” asked another fan via Twitter. Some others started pointing out that they must have known the fact that Hamilton’s sidekick, Angela Cullen, has been stepped aside. But why?
However, another half of the fans who miss seeing Hamilton rocking on the tracks tend to think that the “Motivation [that Lewis once had] is now gone.” But why? Why Lewis Hamilton, whose only goal is to become an eight-time world champion is, not being himself lately? A fan said, “The Angela thing is odd,” and maybe this is one of the reasons.
Even after realizing that Hamilton’s dignity is at risk, Mercedes keeps on doing no good. Apparently, Hamilton is not their priority. The weak cars like W14 are not affecting much on Russell’s image much. But the Mercedes ace, who is just about to end his F1 career, is not going to make a good ending with it. And so a lot of fans are compelled to believe that maybe Mercedes purposefully is making things complicated for him so that a seat for Mick Schumacher may get vacant.
