Mercedes claim Lewis Hamilton and George Russell only have ‘an observing role’ during the development of their 2024 car
Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have complained time and again about their race car in the last two seasons, yet their say is not being counted during the development of their 2024 challenger, as per James Allison.
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The Formula 1 2023 season came to an end with a vicious battle between the forces of Mercedes and Ferrari as they went head-on for the second position on the Constructors’ Championship Standings. The Silver Arrows and the Scuderia were both in contention for the second-best place on the rankings going into the season finale at the Abu Dhabi GP. While Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton had consistently brought the team 6 podium finishes, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz scored the only non-Red Bull race win of last year with his brilliant performance in Singapore.
In fact, Ferrari’s podium count surpassed Mercedes’ in 2023 but still the Italian outfit failed to outscore the Brackley manufacturers by only 3 points. And since then, both the outfits have been hard at work to ensure their 2024 challenger helps them go up against Red Bull as the Austrian team scored over 400 points more than Mercedes and Ferrari each with a whopping 21 race victories out of the 22 Grands Prix held last season.
But James Allison, the Chief Technical Officer of Mercedes who got a renewed contract recently, has made some comments that might come off as a shock to most fans. According to the Briton, Mercedes talents Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have a very minimal role at the team in their brainstorming process for their 2024 racecar. In fact, Allison even said that both the drivers are basically ‘observers’ who do not have much say in Mercedes’ operations at their Brackley headquarters.
It isn’t really a part of the year where they can have other than an observing role with what we’re doing.James Allison said, as reported by Express.co.uk.
James Allison mentions Mercedes have put the responsibility on their drivers to ‘look after their physical condition’
Mercedes racers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have apparently made the best use of the cars they have been dealt with the last couple of seasons in Formula 1. Despite the German manufacturer being famous for winning the Constructors’ Championship for right consecutive times during the turbo-hybrid era, when the rules were changed in 2022, their dominance in the pinnacle of motorsports fell apart. Both Hamilton and Russell have complained several times regarding the Mercedes challengers of 2022 and 2023 and their Team Boss Toto Wolff has agreed with them.
But now, as Mercedes’ engineers are working on the 2024 car, James Allison has said that Lewis and George have minimal part to play in the development process. Rather, they have been directed to look after their physical fitness before the new season kicks off.
Both drivers, their role over the winter is very largely to look after their physical condition. [To] make sure that they’re mentally prepared, and just stay in touch with us about our successes and failures as we are going through the hoops of getting the car specified, built, tested, and ready for them.
In other news, Lewis Hamilton was recently spotted at the Paris Fashion Week show for Christian Dior. The Briton was seen greeting the likes of Oscar-nominated singer-songwriter Pharrell Williams and French actor Raphael Quenard. Lewis has maintained a pretty low-profile during the off-season as he has only shared a couple of pictures on his social media with his dog Roscoe since Christmas.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)