The beginning of the season has proven to be quite vexing for Lewis Hamilton, as noted by 13-time grands prix winner David Coulthard, who observed that Hamilton appears to be “mentally” already focused on Ferrari.
Hamilton is currently in his last season as a Mercedes driver, marking the culmination of a partnership that has seen unparalleled success in Formula 1.
Throughout their tenure together, Hamilton clinched six World Championship titles, while Mercedes secured eight Constructors’ crowns consecutively from 2013 to 2021.
In 2025, Hamilton is set to join Ferrari, with the surprising news of this move surfacing even before the start of the current racing season.
Despite Hamilton’s previous declarations of full commitment to his final year with Mercedes and aiming to end on a high note, the beginning of the season has been challenging for the seven-time World Champion.
He faced setbacks in the first two rounds, losing out to teammate George Russell both in qualifying and on race day at the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix.
Hamilton has urged his team to “get on top of” the bouncing issues that have been troubling them since the onset of the ground effect era. He believes these issues complicated their performance at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Despite George Russell leading the charge in the Mercedes intra-team competition, David Coulthard remarked that Hamilton seems to have already shifted his focus towards the upcoming chapter with Ferrari.
“He’s just not been settled with this car,” Coulthard stated.
“And you can tell, you know, George is just honing the lap time right now and you can feel that Lewis is on the backfoot.
“What we do know though, if he does find a window of performance, then you know he will deliver.
“But right now, it’s looking like his decision to head off to Ferrari, mentally, he is already there.”
During F1’s ground effect era, Mercedes has found themselves in the unenviable position of witnessing Red Bull’s domination. Max Verstappen spearheaded two consecutive Red Bull 1-2 finishes at the beginning of the 2024 season, reaffirming the dominant status of both driver and team.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has openly acknowledged that they have been “missing” something in their approach over the years, preventing them from unlocking the true potential of their car.
However, there is optimism within the Mercedes camp as Wolff believes that Hamilton and Russell can reverse this trend. He even suggests that the team could see improvements as early as the upcoming round in Australia.
Wolff said; “It’s been two and a half years that we are chasing this fundamental change.
“It’s been two years that there is something we need to spot, and that’s the thing to unlock. We have just got to work.
“It’s not through lack of trying. We’ve pushed so hard and we’re going to give it a massive, massive go now in the next week, with more data to understand.
“We are going to come back to Melbourne strong. We are on a mission on this one. And I am 100 per cent sure that we are going to unlock that performance gap.”
