Mercedes reveal mystifying ‘difficult’ mistake as Lewis Hamilton admission made

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin admitted the team launching their “third bad car in a row” in the W15 had been “difficult” for Lewis Hamilton, given he is “born to win races”.

Hamilton ended a 56-race wait for a victory at Silverstone last time out, after which he admitted to having doubts over whether he would be able to get back on the top step again in an emotional win in front of his home crowd.

Mercedes: Lewis Hamilton self-doubt ‘inevitable’ after run of uncompetitive cars

Mercedes struggled to adapt to the ground effect regulations of 2022, with their win at Interlagos that season through George Russell their only one in Formula 1’s new era until Russell took victory at Austria a fortnight ago, capitalising as Max Verstappen and Lando Norris collided to take an unlikely win.

For Hamilton at the British Grand Prix, Mercedes appeared more competitive all weekend, locking out the front row before Russell had to retire with a suspected water system issue.

In changing conditions, however, Shovlin described that victory as “classic Lewis” in how he took the chequered flag first, but given it had been the longest barren period of his career between wins, he was asked whether self doubt had crept in among the seven-time World Champion in the intervening period.

He explained that is only a natural thing to happen when the team cannot fight at the front regularly, especially with the W15 having started life this season off the pace from its rivals.

“I mean, it’s inevitable, and I think the whole team has had a period of that,” Shovlin told the F1 Nation podcast when asked if he had seen any self doubt from Hamilton in the period since his last victory.

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“When we launched our third bad car in a row, we’re all wondering, why have we made that mistake? And how have we done that again?

“So it does have you questioning what you’re doing, and I think the fact that we haven’t had a competitive car made it difficult for Lewis, because he is a driver who is just born to win races.

“And it’s been a tough few years for him having had so many difficult results. It’s not like he’s had all bad races, because he’s got George, who’s an incredibly fast driver and a very difficult person to beat and Lewis has had his fair share of races where he’s been ahead of George – it’s just that we weren’t able to win because we didn’t have the car to win.”

With Hamilton having confirmed prior to the season that he would be joining Ferrari next year, Shovlin added that the atmosphere within Mercedes has been that of wanting to end on a high if possible, and finishing his stint with three seasons in a row without victory would not have been befitting of his time with the Silver Arrows.

“When Lewis announced he was going to Ferrari, all of us felt like ‘well, let’s make this year one to remember, and let’s go out with something to celebrate,'” he said.

“So the entire team was hoping that this would be a year that we could get back to winning races and have some results because it would be a real shame if that absolutely incredible chapter of Lewis’ career that is at Mercedes, if that were to sort of finish with three winless seasons on the trot.

“We’re happy for him, we’re happy for the team, but there’s nothing that we want more than for that chapter with Lewis to finish with a happy ending.”

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