F1 Insider Warns Of Upset Within Mercedes Camp and Lewis Hamilton
Former team owner-turned-businessman Eddie Jordan has warned of upset within the Mercedes camp as Mercedes continues to encounter a performance deficit that Lewis Hamilton simply isn't used to. After the Bahrain Grand Prix, the opening race of the 2023 F1 season, the 7-time world champion was arguably too open with the press, admitting that he'd told the team to go in a different direction.
He said:
"Last year, I told them the issues that are with the car. Like, I’ve driven so many cars in my life, so I know what a car needs, I know what a car doesn’t need.
“And I think it’s really about accountability, it’s about owning up and saying ‘yeah, you know what, we didn’t listen to you, it’s not where it needs to be and we’ve got to work’.”
Toto Wolff followed this by adding that the Brackley squad had indeed "got it wrong", after following analysis that was skewed by track-specific performance that gave them false hope in the zero-pod concept. Now, Mercedes has made significant organisational changes to get them back on-track in their fight against Red Bull and Aston Martin, but Jordan, talking to Express Sport, wonders if there's more going on behind the scenes.
“As a team owner you wouldn’t have liked it," he said. “However, if I was a driver and I heard the team owner saying that ‘I think the engineers have let us down and they have missed something here, and they have missed something there’, I’m critical of Toto and I’m critical of the team.
“With the power and might and the knowledge and the backing they’ve had, Mercedes should be at least competitive to give us, the paying punters, a really good fight.
“I don’t want to go and see a Grand Prix [for] who’s going to come third to the Red Bulls. At the moment unfortunately that’s what’s happening. I think Toto needs to rally his troops, he needs to gain total and absolute confidence of all parties, including Lewis.
“Lewis would not have said that if there hadn’t been that feeling openly within the team. Can I criticise Lewis for saying what he said? I wouldn’t have liked it but there had to be a reason for it.
“I’d first want to find out what was the reason and was it valid? Was it justifiable? And take it from there. There’s been no repercussions to it so I’d have to say Lewis had every right to say what he said.”
While Hamilton found enough performance from the W14 to bring home a P2 finish at the Australian Grand Prix, the driver is still critical of the seating position, with him saying the following after the race:
“I still feel uncomfortable in the car, don’t feel connected to it. Driving it as best as I can with that connection, but it’s a long project.
“Given we’re down on performance, to be fighting with the Astons is amazing at this point in the season. We can close that gap - it’s going to be tough but not impossible.
“I was having to push a lot to keep Fernando, they’re very quick, ultimately he was a bit quicker but just managed to hold him off."
With James Allison now technical director, replacing Make Elliot who now takes a seat as chief technology officer, this spells big changes coming to the team. But how long before these changes take effect is anyone's guess.