The 2024 Formula One season will begin with Lewis Hamilton at the age of 39. Can Mercedes give him another World Championship-winning vehicle before the most successful driver in grand prix racing ages out? Mark Hughes enquires
Speaking with Lewis Hamilton a few weeks ago at the Abu Dhabi season finale about the expectations that the Mercedes team of the previous two years had raised and then shattered, it was evident that he occasionally found it difficult to maintain his positive outlook. One moment he would say, “I do have faith that we will get there, we have been [at the top] before as a team, and while we have more and more new people, we still have great values and I see great focus within everyone,” veering between affirmative and cynical.
Shortly after, he would lament, “When I win a race, people say, ‘Oh, he’s a seven-time world champion with 103 wins, so what?'” It is [a big deal] if I perform poorly. Right now in life, I can only lose.
However, it seems as though he is using that to build tension, as though he is telling himself that he has been written off as a spent force and that he is no longer capable of matching the fervor and intensity of a newer generation of drivers. so that it will be a magnificent “Still I Rise” moment when he finally gets to show them all wrong. The man of yesterday returning to rule the world and going back in time like a Formula One champion Muhammad Ali.
It’s simple to picture something along those lines serving as his inner monologue as he endures the wilderness after already two seasons without a victory. All he can do is hope that while he still has the makings of a great man, Mercedes finds out the details of these rules. It can take a while for a team to emerge from the woods, and it’s hard to imagine him persevering through year after year of hardship like Fernando Alonso did.
What are the chances that Mercedes will provide him a vehicle to compete with Red Bull while he is still a formidable opponent? James Allison, the team’s technical director, thinks he can see a way there. He claims that “our understanding of these cars is quite a bit different now.” We now know a lot more about how to make the spring platform and aero platform get along better. That presents the primary difficulty.
It seems that Red Bull recognized this challenge right away and built on it in ’23. The reason it has been able to outperform the competition for the past two years is largely due to its suspension platform and how it works with an apparently sympathetic underfloor airflow to keep bouncing at bay at high speeds while still having great low-speed downforce. The suspension and chassis of the Mercs at the time could not have produced that combination. Aero was king in the past, and the suspension experts would figure out a way to make it work. These days, the relationship is closer. says Allison, going on to confirm that the new car will have a new chassis, new gearbox, and new front and rear suspension.
Hamilton remarked cautiously in Abu Dhabi, “I think we have understood the car so much better.” “We’ve worked on some fantastic tools in the background. Naturally, I’m optimistic. I won’t, however, hold my breath.
Is that just the reinforcement of that inner monologue, or is that the cynical realist speaking?
