Lewis Hamilton claims Mercedes engineers rejected his complaints over the 2022 car only to regret it at the end of the season 

The Drive to Survive series reveals Lewis Hamilton's "supposedly" strained relationship with Mercedes.

Lewis Hamilton claims Mercedes engineers rejected his complaints over the 2022 car only to regret it at the end of the season 

Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff (Via: IMAGO)

Lewis Hamilton‘s move to Ferrari in 2025 was announced at the start of February and set shockwaves throughout the F1 community. There have been rumors that Hamilton is leaving the team because of the wrong development direction Mercedes has taken which could yield weaker cars. The Englishman hasn’t been a fan of cars produced by Mercedes in the last two seasons and has been a vocal critic of it.

In the past two seasons, Mercedes’ W13 and its successor W14 have only produced one race win and it came from Hamilton’s teammate George Russell. In the recently released Netflix documentary series, the Englishman revealed that his complaints about the cars for the 2022 season were rejected by the team engineers.

YouTube video

The Mercedes crew told the seven-time world champion he was wrong. But as the season progressed Mercedes identified the mistakes they made and at the end of the season, they admitted to Hamilton that he was right about the car.

FS Video
I remember complaining to the team and being like, look, we have to make these changes, otherwise this is the trajectory we’re going to go on and this is where we’re going to end up, “Please, please do something about itI remember they said, like, we know what we’re doing, you’re wrong. And that was definitely an interesting moment. I was like, okay, I’ll step back, don’t want to step on anybody’s toes. Then when we got into the season, then we spoke again [they said] ‘oh, maybe you were right.
Lewis Hamilton said, (H&T: racefans.net)

Conversation between Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton in DTS shocks fans

Since 2013, Lewis Hamilton, a 2013 Mercedes hire, has been connected to the Silver Arrows. In addition to winning six titles for the team, he assisted in its eight consecutive championships. Hamilton, however, decided to leave the team and join Ferrari after evaluating the team’s performance under ground effect regulations. 

Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton
Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton (Via IMAGO). Hamilton driving Mercedes W15 (In circle)

In the new Drive to Survive season trailer, Hamilton was seen responding sharply to Toto Wolff. In that trailer Lewis Hamilton was seen saying to the team principal, You can be here for 20 years, but I can’t. Fans have begun to speculate that perhaps he was thinking about leaving the team ever since then. 

On February 1st, Lewis Hamilton declared his intention to leave Mercedes for the 2025 season. The head of Mercedes, Toto Wolff, claimed that Hamilton had only told him about it the day before it was made public, which shocked the racing community. Wolff accepted Hamilton’s resignation right away. but fans have been devastated by his decision to exercise the leave clause in his contract, and the news has caused them great distress.

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