Lewis Hamilton has opened up about a particularly stark instance of “I told you so” that shattered his dreams of securing an unprecedented eighth world championship.
F1 underwent major changes to its aerodynamic regulations, changes that Red Bull and Verstappen mastered, while Hamilton’s team, Mercedes, struggled to adapt.
To make matters worse, Mercedes chose to stick with their design approach into 2023, failing to see any significant improvement.
This has led to Hamilton experiencing the longest winless period of his illustrious career since his last victory in 2021, despite his frequent public expressions of concern over the team’s strategic choices.
In a revealing moment from the Netflix series Drive to Survive, Hamilton shared insights into the depth of the disagreements that unfolded out of the public eye.
“I remember complaining to the team and being like, look, we have to make these changes,” Hamilton said, as per racefans.net.
“Otherwise this is the trajectory we’re going to go on and this is where we’re going to end up. Please, please do something about it.
“I remember they said, like, ‘we know what we’re doing, you’re wrong’. And that was definitely an interesting moment.”
Hamilton’s skepticism was validated when the direction taken by Red Bull proved to be the winning strategy, a realization that the rest of the grid, Mercedes included, has since come to acknowledge and follow.
“I was like, okay, I’ll step back, I don’t want to step on anybody’s toes,” Hamilton added. “Then when we got into the season, then we spoke again [they said] ‘oh, maybe you were right’.”
The backstage discord could have contributed to Hamilton’s decision to conclude his historic alliance with Mercedes.
Starting in 2025, Hamilton will join forces with Ferrari, bringing together the sport’s most accomplished driver and its most storied team in pursuit of another world championship.
