Hamilton Responds To His Former Engineer Suggesting He 'Lets Himself Go'

Sunday, 25 August 2024 at 18:58

Lewis Hamilton hit back after former Mercedes engineer Philipp Brandle suggested he "lets himself go" when he doesn't have a competitive car.

Former Mercedes engineer Philipp Brandle appeared in an interview with Motorsport Total (during the summer break), where he discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton.

What he said was that the 39-year-old "can drive at 200 percent" once he knows that he has a competitive car and that victory might be within reach.

On the contrary, the former engineer also pointed out that once Hamilton sees "he somehow has no chance of winning the race, then unfortunately he lets himself go a bit, which is a shame."

The British driver addressed these comments in an interview ahead of the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix at Circuit Zandvoort, where he said, as per express.co.uk:

"I'm slowly getting more and more comfortable with the car. I've definitely struggled during the year. I read some comment from someone earlier that said that 'I don't drive 200 per cent when the car's not right', but I've been working my butt off all year."

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On the one hand, Hamilton has been doing everything he could to help Mercedes identify and fix the problem with their car and fix it.

The seven-time World Champion often experimented with risky setups just to collect valuable data. However, his performance really did pick up compared to that of his teammate once the Mercedes car became faster (which might support Brandle's statement). Hamilton continued:

"I've been giving everything, and it's not been good enough, so I've just been trying to work at it and get better."

"And as the car's progressing, I'm becoming more and more at one with it, and now the results are starting to come, which is a great feeling."

The 39-year-old added that his aim for the remainder of the last season with the German team is to catch up with Ferrari, which stands third in the Championship, and to make some progress in the Drivers' Championship as well.

"If we can catch Ferrari in the Constructors' [Championship], that would be an amazing recovery. If we can move into the top five Drivers' [Championship] wise, if I can get close to the top three, I think that'd be a good recovery from the difficult season we started."