Lewis Hamilton has opened up on his self-doubt struggles during a tricky F1 season in 2023.
The seven-time world champion scored six podiums on his way to third in the standings but has failed to score a victory since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
“Ultimately,” Hamilton told selected media in Abu Dhabi, “when you have difficult seasons like this, there are always going to be moments when you’re like: ‘Is it me, or is it the car? Do you still have it? Has it gone?’
“Because you’re missing that, you know… when the magic happens, when everything comes together, the car and you, and that spark, it’s extraordinary. And that’s what you’re in the search for.”
Hamilton’s brutally honest reflections come after being forced to sit and watch Max Verstappen waltz to his third world title as the Dutchman won 19 out of the 22 races in an astonishing season from the 26-year-old.
Mercedes have stuttered over the past couple of years.
Neither of their concepts has managed to topple the all-conquering Red Bull, despite a win for George Russell in 2022 and pole position for Hamilton in Hungary earlier this year.
The Brackley-based team persisted with the ‘zero-pod’ concept before switching to a more conventional design at Monaco.
Hamilton had a feeling that the W14 would make 2023 a difficult season even before he drove the car.
The unique ‘zero pod’concept continued to be used by Mercedes this season, despite Hamilton wanting to go in a different direction and the nine other teams moving away from Mercedes’design.
“I remember it feeling the same,” he says as he compares it to last year. “And that was not a great feeling. I had high hopes.
“In February, when we do a download of where the car is going, I was a little more apprehensive because the previous year it was like: ‘The car is amazing, it’s unique, no one’s going to have anything like it.’ And then we get to the first test…
“So, I was a little bit more cautious when listening, and I was like: ‘We will see.’ And then the car had all these problems. I just knew it was going to be a long year.”
Mercedes were restricted by a $135m cost cap, which didn’t allow the team to make the fundamental changes needed to improve the W14 sufficiently.
Despite the lacklustre season, Hamilton believes his team are ready to get back to winning ways and have a clear idea of how to get there.
“I do believe we have a North Star now,” Hamilton says. “Which I don’t think we’ve had for two years. But still, getting there is not a straight line.
“And there were just certain things, decisions that have been made, that just left you blocked at the end of a road, and you can’t do anything because of the cost cap and all these different things.
“If you look at the Red Bull — and they did 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.
“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.
“We had a lot of aero on that first car last year. We had to basically knock a ton of downforce off it and then slowly try to add. But every time we tried to add, it was worse. So we just didn’t improve for a long, long, long time.”
The 38-year-old is sceptical about Mercedes’s improvement.
“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.”
Hamilton has raced in F1 since 2007, a time when the F1 calendar has increased to 23 races from 17 events.
The only driver to take more than 100 wins, with 103, says he is under scrutiny all the time and is criticised regardless of his results on the track.
“You’re being scrutinised all the time, and I’m in a place in my life where there’s no way I can win.
“If I win a race, it’s: ‘Oh, he’s a seven-time world champion, you got 103 wins.’ If I don’t do well, it’s [criticism]… I can only lose at this point in life. So, for sure, there was a period of time when I was questioning whether I wanted to go through that.
“I still love driving. I still love getting into the car.
“When they start the car up, and you have all those people around you, the crew, you go down the pit lane; I still get this smile on my face the same as I did the first day I drove.”
Photo Credit: Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team
