Hamilton Suggests Mercedes Found Its North Star But Has Massive Gap To Close

Friday, 01 December 2023 at 10:00

Updated at Friday, 01 December 2023 at 10:19

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton commented on Mercedes' development progress throughout the 2023 season and going into 2024.

As one of the multiple teams, Mercedes struggled with big oscillations in performance throughout the 2023 season, and it can be partially attributed to the wrong concept of the car, which performed well on one track but not so well on others.

Lewis Hamilton thinks the problem might be Mercedes was not totally clear on the direction it wanted to go in terms of development at the beginning of the year. He told BBC:

"We didn't have a North Star necessarily at the beginning of the year, knowing exactly where we need to work towards. It's been kind of a zig-zag line trying to frickin' get to where we need to be."

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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff lately warned his team would be making big changes to the car going into the 2024 season, and the seven-time World Champion seems to be more positive:

"I do believe we have a North Star now. Which I don't think we've had for two years. But still getting there is not a straight line."

Red Bull Racing made a great step forward between seasons 2022 and 2023 in terms of development, and the Mercedes driver thinks they have done an amazing job:

"If you look at the Red Bull - and they have done an amazing job - from Bahrain last year, they had a bouncing issue and they fixed it that week. And then you can imagine, if you're trying to build a wall, they are one brick after the other, just development, development, development."

Mercedes first chose a concept contradictive to the direction that Red Bull was taking and believed they could make it work, but it turned out they couldn't.

"Maybe they added something and it didn't add performance. But they were still building. Whereas for us, we had to knock down the wall, if you like, in terms of aero."

Coming back to Wolff said, changing directions completely for the next season means a massive challenge awaits Mercedes, but Hamilton remains hopeful.

"I think we understand the car so much better. They have developed great tools in the background. So, naturally, I'm hopeful. But I'm not going to hold my breath."