Ex-engineer accuses Lewis Hamilton of ‘letting himself go’ when he has no chance of winning F1 race

Mercedes driver and seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton tends to “let himself go a bit” when he has no chance of winning an F1 race.

That is the view of former Mercedes engineer Philipp Brändle, who believes it is “a shame” that Hamilton only drives at “200 per cent” when a victory is on offer.

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Hamilton ended a 945-day wait for a victory, by some distance the longest drought of his F1 career, by taking an emotional victory at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone last month.

The Mercedes driver followed that up weeks later by securing a record-extending 105th win in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, where he inherited victory after team-mate George Russell was disqualified following post-race checks.

Hamilton’s return to the top step of the podium has come after two winless seasons with Mercedes across 2022/23 when the team struggled to adjust to F1’s ground-effect regulations, with the 39-year-old often cutting a frustrated figure.

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Brändle, who worked with Hamilton as an aerodynamics engineer at Mercedes, believes Hamilton comes alive when he has a chance of winning, but “lets himself go a bit” when the car is not capable of challenging at the front.

He told German outlet Motorsport-Total : “What I think always sets him apart a little, both positively and negatively, is that when he knows he has a chance of winning something, he can drive at 200 per cent.

“But if he has the feeling that the car isn’t running well, that he somehow has no chance of winning the race, then unfortunately he lets himself go a bit, which is a shame.

“If he sees even the slightest chance, then he drives as well as ever, I think, like no other.”

Brändle feels Hamilton lacks the ability of Russell and Nico Rosberg, his former team-mate who memorably beat him to the title in 2016, to delve into the data and exploit the technology available to the drivers.

But he believes Hamilton makes up for that shortcoming with his natural touch and feel for the car, likening it to that of fellow seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher.

He explained: “What characterises Lewis is simply his incredible feel for the car.

“I would say that in terms of the data and the technology, he is perhaps not as mature as other drivers, such as Nico Rosberg or now perhaps George Russell.

‘But he has an incredible feel for the car, just like Michael Schumacher was said to have back then.

“He feels the car like no other, so if it feels like a screw is loose somewhere at 320 kilometres per hour, he can feel it right from the start.”

Brändle pointed to Hamilton’s tyre management as another key skill, referring his victory at the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix after a late switch to a two-stop strategy saw him catch and pass Max Verstappen in the closing laps.

He said: “[Hamilton] can simply judge things brutally well.

“He is also a tyre whisperer, he feels the tyres like no other and can also manage them sensationally well. There are countless examples of this, [one of which was] in Hungary a few years ago, where Red Bull led with Max.

‘[Red Bull] decided to make only [one] pit stop. Mercedes had to do something else because otherwise they wouldn’t have got past.

‘He was really chasing Verstappen for the whole race, but then he overtook him in the first corner in the end. That was exactly where he showed his class again.”

Brändle’s comments come after it emerged that Hamilton’s long-serving race engineer, Peter Bonnington, has been promoted to the role of head of race engineering (below).

Bonnington will continue to work with Hamilton until the end of F1 2024 ahead of the seven-time World Champion’s move to Ferrari on a multi-year contract.

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