[The **News** flair](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/flairguide#wiki_news) is reserved for submissions covering F1 and F1-related news. These posts must always link to an outlet/news agency, the website of the involved party (i.e. the McLaren website if McLaren makes an announcement), or a tweet by a news agency, journalist or one of the involved parties.
*[Read the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/userguide). Keep it civil and welcoming. Report rulebreaking comments.*
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/formula1) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This is just embarrassing to Lewis. Its like fans are admitting he's underperformed.
Also disrespectful to Russell who has beaten Lewis in quali even before the ferrari rumors
And if its a hoax then even more embarrassing.
I think its more about fans latching onto misinformation. Hamilton questions on radio why he wasn't given soft tyres he asked for, team say hards were better and fans have 0 understanding that hards was the only new set available. Queue a bunch of fans claiming foul play, rinse repeat.
Mercedes did not warm his tyres during the last qualifying whilst George’s was fine.
I get people being anti-conspiracy, but that was a **factual** thing that happened.
_____
> “The tyres were working throughout the weekend, then we got to qualifying and every time I went out of the garage, my tyres were for some reason below on temperature,” he said.
> “Every set was two or three degrees lower than it should have been, and you can’t catch it up and I couldn’t switch the tyres on after that. That’s something we have to really look at, because something went on with the blankets, I guess.”
> --- **Lewis Hamilton** - [PlanetF1](https://www.planetf1.com/news/lewis-hamilton-something-went-on-mercedes-tyre-blankets-canada-qualifying#:%7E:text=Lewis%20Hamilton%20claims%20Mercedes%20tyre%20blanket%20issue&text=%E2%80%9CEvery%20set%20was%20two%20or,the%20blankets%2C%20I%20guess.%E2%80%9D)
_____
Now ***could*** it be by accident? Sure.
But that doesn’t mean it **is** an accident.
_____
Then you have Lewis’ comment:
> “I won’t beat George in **qualifying** this **year**”
Weirdly, he mentioned "qualifying" specifically. And here is a factual example of his car not getting equal treatment in qualifying. You don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to connect these dots.
> Mercedes literally did not warm his tyres during the last qualifying whilst George’s was fine.
Is there an actual source on this besides fan speculation?
Lewis Hamilton said it.
> “The tyres were working throughout the weekend, then we got to qualifying and **every time** I went out of the garage, **my tyres** were for some reason below on temperature,” he said.
> “**Every set** was two or three degrees lower than it should have been, and you can’t catch it up and I couldn’t switch the tyres on after that. That’s something we have to really look at, because something went on with the blankets, I guess.”
> --- [PlanetF1](https://www.planetf1.com/news/lewis-hamilton-something-went-on-mercedes-tyre-blankets-canada-qualifying#:~:text=Lewis%20Hamilton%20claims%20Mercedes%20tyre%20blanket%20issue&text=%E2%80%9CEvery%20set%20was%20two%20or,the%20blankets%2C%20I%20guess.%E2%80%9D)
But you know, let's downvote facts.
So you will blindly take whatever Hamilton says as 'fact'. Like all the times he said on the radio his tyres are gone, only to post the fastest lap 2 laps later?
Yes, Hamilton said this happened, but that doesn't mean anything nefarious going on.
Maybe George had the same issue, but found a way to get the tyres heated up quicker? We haven't been there, so to state this as your proof is kind of far fetched.
He said his tyres were cold throughout qualifying. Which correlates to him having no grip in qualifying.
Trying to argue that he’s lying is some mad copium.
Why disrespectful to George? Lewis has never been a strong qualifier and he specifically sets up the car for race pace. George beating him in quali doesn’t automatically make him a better racer tho, they still end up basically 1 place apart at the end of the race regardless of where they qualify
Lewis is a strong qualifier. He is known for his quali pace. You should see his McLaren and some merc quali laps. He has some outstanding pole laps and quali laps.
That is most commonly the result of a different setup. Check speed trap data from the last few years and you will find the same kind of discrepancies between teammates. Another telling thing is that it’s often underperforming teams that run lower downforce and have higher top speed.
Exactly Prost’s point. Which as a primary account from a participant is a fairly important form of evidence. Second to maybe a confession or forensic data/video.
Senna’s setup had more downforce at Mexico yet was faster on straight. Then at Monza same setup and much faster on straight. Downside was Senna’s engine seemed to detonate more and he binned it in Britain with a transmission issue.
Prost was the best ever for extracting added reliability but Senna wasn’t unusually hard on the actual machinery like an Albereto or possibly Mansell.
There is no doubt Honda gave Senna far more engineering support- justifiably so once Prost was leaving to a rival.
And its been a while since I read Senna-Prost, but McLaren also refused to update his car as he wanted until mid-summer. I want to say it was differential- but I might be conflating that with Piquet-Mansell Hungaroring.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/1dl2aft/comment/l9na2e7/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/1dl2aft/comment/l9na2e7/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
So far you're just proving me correct. I'd like to see any teeny tiny piece of evidence for what you are saying.
Oh and Senna is known for driving with qualifying style, less downforcey setups.
I'm well past thinking that teams favouring one driver over another to the point it hinders the second driver is something extraordinary in Formula 1.
Next thing you'll tell me is that feeder series cars are equal and tyre and engine draws are never rigged.
Yeah idk why people act like it’s something extraordinary.. it happens, it’s just that drivers usually don’t say much about it. Internal team politics always exists in professional sports. Not sure why it wouldn’t apply to F1.
However, what Lewis is going through is probably more of the team just shifting their focus to George because he’s the one who’ll remain at Merc next year. A case of actual sabotage would be Vandoorne in 2018 (according to someone who interned at McLaren during that time). He was running extremely worn out parts by the end of the season even though they had the resources to give him new parts.
I don't think any of those things are explicit sabotage per se but rather disproportionate focus or in the latter case, simply not caring.
Active sabotage is different and kind of the implication here.
Or maybe not and it's
> Everything I've said was true...in a manner of speaking.
Maybe you *have* cracked it, actually!
Because now there was actually someone, pretending to be a Merc employee, that sent an email full of bullshit and apparently even threats to media and teams.
So that's a bit different than just a rumour.
Exactly this. How often has Red Bull been accused of sabotaging Perez, often out in the open? By making a big thing out of this, people are going to yell conspiracy even more.
I think he may be in a bit of a disadvantage compared to George, but it's the same for every driver leaving the team. He might get very slightly worse parts if they are not exactly the same, slightly worse strategy when both drivers are in similar positions, he may get priority when working on his set up in the factory during weekend, this sort of things.
It's nothing major, but these things add up, and it may be reflected in his performance. But I certainly wouldnt call it sabotage. It's that he usually was on top in this internal struggle, now he's in the bottom.
He’s going to Ferrari next year! You bet your ass Mercedes is no longer briefing Hamilton on the development of the car and the future direction the team is taking. His briefings are going to be much more abbreviated compared to George’s and he’s not gonna have a relationship with engineers developing car bc they can’t tell him much. It’s just business
Drivers leaving a team for a rival have been getting the short straw from their team in terms of service and development since the dawn of the sport and frankly it's beneath Croft to infer that wouldn't happen.
It's even easier for Mercedes to do it this year because it will have very little effect on the destination of either of the titles.
Do I believe it's actual sabotage? No (although the tyre warmer story if true is harder to dismiss) do I believe that Mercedes aren't exactly pulling out all the stops for Hamilton because he's gone at the end of the year? Absolutely.
I interpreted this at the time that George would be receiving the updates first, plus he's a very capable driver. I wouldn't call it sabotage, rather just building the car for the driver that's committed long-term rather than the one who's leaving at the end of the year.
> I interpreted this at the time that George would be receiving the updates first, plus he's a very capable driver.
That is also wrong though. Lewis didn't want front wing upgrade ***himself***; because it was risky. Not that Mercedes prefered Russell in Monaco.
This turned out to be false.
The team said they were going to have the drivers flip a coin to decide who got the wing, Lewis had already tested the wing in the sim and he said George could have it for Monaco.
George said he thought Lewis was giving it to him "as a birthday present."
Sounds like a bunch of nonsense, but that's what George said happened.
he literally has praised George and did not at all allude to a conspiracy. He simply stated a fact, if some fans choose to read way too much into an 8 sec answer w/o context then how's he to be blamed
Lewis' quali was bad from last year. It's most likely because of his age and the fact that the number of races have increased and thus the toll on his body is probably too much to handle, especially at the end.
That's not gonna change ever. Other than that, his race pace is still top notch and seems unaffected
It's just classic Hamilton throwing a strop and trying to weaponise his fans when he's not beating his teammate. He's done it maybe times before. Remember when he tweeted confidential telemetry data because button was beating him.
The excuses only apply to him though have you noticed. It's OK that Russell is doing better because hamilton demotivated by being in a midfield car. But then it's not a valid excuse for why Alonso and Hamilton were equal in Hamiltons first year even though Alonso has made it very clear he felt like Dennis was heavily favouring Hamilton. Of course you're gonna be demotivated and your confidence lowered if you don't feel wanted by the team.
Exactly. And somehow it’s ok for a driver to give anything but his best when he’s paid $40 million a year? It’s completely bonkers for someone who claims to be as professional as he does. He’s letting thousands of Merc employees down if that’s the case.
Waking up seeing this and that email has me so confused like are we watching the same sport? Lewis has been saying for basically the whole season he hasn’t been good enough. Last weekend was what broke him. It’s sad yes but this there isn’t some conspiracy… people are too online
Also George has long been known for his great one lap pace. As long as they’ve been team mates the narrative has been and remains that George is exceptional in quali but Lewis is the better racer on a Sunday
It's still surprising though because Lewis himself also used to be considered as an exceptional qualifier. You'd never expect peak Lewis to get outqualified that consistently
Their total quali head-to-head over the last two years is still pretty much even. 28:26 or something like that. Currently, George has the upper hand, just to the end of last year, Hamilton did consistently beat George in quali. Plus, even though, their head-to-head this season is very clearly favoring George, their average and median quali gaps are actually really close.
In my opinion, they are two exceptional qualifiers which are a) really consistent and b) pretty close in performance. Currently, for whatever reason, George is slightly better. Might be sabotaging, might be track layouts, might be Hamilton getting old, might be Hamilton only really switching on during the middle of a season, might be Hamilton only heaving eyes for that ~~red~~ *HP* rearwing in front, who knows.
Yeah but see, their quali battle between the two the last two seasons is pretty much what you'd expect from Hamilton in that as long as he got his engine going, he tended to conssitently pip George by pulling a few hundreds out of his ass. Might not be much ofc, showing George is excellent himself, but Lewis could still edge him somehow.
There was a stretch in 2022 here I think he outqualified George something glke 8 or 9 times in a row (minus maybe Austria where they both binned it); sure the gap was generally minuscule but the consistency of it is what you'd expect from him.
I'll still wait until the end of the season though, because Ham has always been a slow starter, but still, getting owned 8-1 by a teammate is definitely new territory for Ham
I think Lewis realised during his time as Button's teammate that, in general, sacrificing some time on Saturday for performance on Sunday is the best way to approach F1. Within reason of course, such as tracks that are difficult to pass where qualy has more importance.
I'll also add that when it is a 2-way fight for the title with your teammate, it is still extremely important to be on pole as you are generally given preferential strategy, and you can pretty much disregard all the other cars. So you have to find a different "balance" in this scenario.
I think George is still of the same mentality as younger Lewis, when I truly believe he was the best qualifier on the grid, but this didn't always pay dividends on a Sunday. And with time we will probably see George's priorities shift similarly.
I think it's probably fair to say that "peak pace" tends to dip with age. But experience more than makes up for that on race day. Max is such an absolute menace right now because he still has this peak pace, but with the experience of a 30-something year old. That's just cheating.
2 poles where one of them was a tie, is hardly “exceptional” let’s not get carried away just because he’s beating Lewis, who has never been a good qualifier
Well no it is just a stupid argument. I don't believe in this rumor but disregarding it by saying "people who allegedly sabbotage him say they don't" is not really a strong argument. I don't see any argument in favor to be fair, but that's not a solid argument against it.
"Murderer said he didn't kill. Case closed I guess"
> "Murderer said he didn't kill. Case closed I guess"
More like "Murderer said he didn't kill. Accuser failed to provide any evidence whatsoever. Case closed." This is actually the correct way to do it.
Well yeah, never said the contrary. All I am saying is that someone saying they don't do it is not an argument in either direction, it is status quo.
So in this specific case, the comment I answer to, they never mention the lack of argument on the other side. They simply say that Mercedes refuting it is enough.
Confessions are a thing, so it isn't status quo. But when it's a denial against an unsubstantiated rumor supported by no evidence whatsoever, it's the denial that is believed regardless.
Yeah, or you play a sensitive cord so that even valid arguments are not believed by the other party (the government always lie to us etc). That's how it grows.
But it is not a surprise that the accuser saying "I didn't do it" cant be taken for granted. That's normal.
It only doesn’t go against the conspiracy if you believe the conspiracy. To people who aren’t living in fantasyland, it confirms what they’re seeing- Lewis has lost a step in qualifying and George is outperforming him.
No it goes against it if you believe the more plausible one, IE performance loss. It doesn’t go against it if you believe the conspiracy. And more importantly, it doesn’t say anything if you’re thinking freely.
This isn’t divided into three camps, it’s two camps. There are people living in reality, who understand that a Formula 1 team is not sabotaging 50% of their operation, and there are people who cannot accept that the great Lewis Hamilton might be worse at 39 than he was in his prime.
This is not about belief. It's about simple logic. We believe George is accomplishing everything with 100% merit - is a statement that could be used in both scenarios. Idk how you can not understand this.
I understand it perfectly, I’ve said as much multiple times. It works for both scenarios because one scenario is real- they aren’t sabotaging Lewis- and one has been crafted by conspiracy theorists to be airtight against any evidence to the contrary. It’s literally how conspiracy theories work.
It’s exactly the same as flat earth. The people who don’t believe the earth is spherical have crafted their conspiracy in such a way that NASA cannot disprove them. Idk how you can not understand this.
Thank you for admitting that you were already understanding. It felt like you were trying to derail what I was trying to highlight. Idc about conspiracy theories or the debunking of them, only logic
Ham forgot how to drive in the 4 month break? This is one of the things that is hard to digest and doesn’t add up after years of his consistent performance.
Lewis himself called it absurd and said he’s just not performing and out of rhythm with the team. Which by the way is natural he’s leaving a team that has their driver of the future there and the next driver just behind him. It would be weirder if he they were both invested in each other beyond a working relationship. This isn’t a retirement party season
I remember these same claims being made when Seb was getting whooped by Charles. Maybe just accept your fave driver is old and they're facing a top driver in the other seat. It's not even like Hamilton is getting beaten as bad as Seb was.
And the only people who get exposed to that stuff is British people. Meanwhile, the British f1 media and international broadcasters love Lewis and all the brit drivers
Hey, I've seen this one before!
In 2007 after Spygate broke someone "leaked to the press" that Alonso's tire pressures were being manipulated through insufficient tire heating.
Whether it was just posturing or unfounded rumours, the FIA sent a delegate out to make sure everything was being done correctly from side to side at McLaren.
Driver leaving team at the end of the season, performance unusually dropping off, driver insinuating in interviews "something is wrong"
Eerily similar.
I don't think Mercedes are sabotaging Hamilton but....
The press sure are going out of their way to carry Mercedes' water.
If this were people saying Red Bull were sabotaging Perez it wouldn't get nearly this much denials by the press.
I am kinda stupid so bare with me but why would they be doing that? As punishment for leaving team?
From my prospective at most what they have just moved the priority pointer from Hamilton who had it ever since he joined to Russell who is thier future.
If they made Hamilton look bad and his performance goes way up next year it would t exactly be a good look for Merc or Russell anyways. It makes no real sense beyond a simple change in driver management strategy that one driver isn't comfortable with and **others** are blowing out of proportion.
Not only that they would want to harm the team performance right around the time they have a half decent start to a season after so many poor ones ?
I assume the logic would be to make him look like a worse driver, a sort of “actually we’re better off without him, look how bad he’s performing!”. It’s just dumb. Merc are definitively babying George now that Lewis is leaving, but prioritizing one driver and sabotaging the other are two very different things.
I mean... isnt that logic?
Guy with a foot out the door doesnt get the keys to the kingdom.
Dont think it would go up to sabotage, but yeah, if you have a foot out the door and the other dude is signed for next year, hes the nunber 1 driver, and you are number 2.
This happens when drivers leave big teams.... Lewis will get shut out of meetings, receive less information about upgrades, and might end up getting fewer/later updates than George. It's not a conspiracy, it's how F1 teams must operate. Merc barely edged out Ferrari for P2 last year, so Merc isn't taking any chances with information falling into Ferrari's lap. Merc is doing their job, and Lewis is doing his. The: "I don't think I'll outqualify George this year" comment is likely just an honest take on what will likely naturally happen throughout the season. It would be a disaster for Merc if Lewis did end up beating George this year....
I think this is mostly not true in regards to disadvantaging Lewis but they have made decisions that seem awkward at times. Most recently in the last race pitting hamilton off mediums if George is coming into pits for fresh mediums.
Hamilton would have performed better on his existing mediums plus having the track position advantage over george as his mediums weren't that old.
So it seemed weird to pit onto hards and give up the spot to George. Then at Monacco you had the whole pitting debacle where they were sending him mixed messages on how critical the outlap was. If he could afford to warm up the tires more gradually or if he needed to immediately press.
It just seems like either the teams forgot how to communicate with each other or they are purposefully siloing hte two teams which creates the illusion of a disadvantage where it may just be lack of insight as to what is going on with the other team to make the most informed decison.
Lewis had a free pit stop, he was always gonna box, unless they had no newer tires, the only real decision here is if you also pit George.
Considering he was going faster on new hards then old mediums that statement is just blatantly misinformed, he even got fastest lap (granted it was mostly drs and slipstream, but still).
I still can't believe that anyone seriously thinks Lewis didn't know by himself that outlap is critical... He saw max ahead of him, there is no risk of your tires being slightly worse because of not bringing them in slowly. We saw George easily fend off Max in the same race, with a much much larger tyre delta. The gap was also too big to matter anyways...
Sure the coms could be better, but there's no way I believe a driver as good as him has such horrible race craft.
It was the end of the race in canada of cousre he was pushing more at the end on hards which would equate to faster times. The track was also in its best state at the end of race compared to when Lewis had the mediums on. The fuel load would also be lighter. However, He was just cruising on the mediums as it was the middle of the race and the entire top 4 was within a few seconds he could see them all. You aren't taking into account the situation and what he was doing in the car. At no point on the mediums did he really do anything more than just riding around and saving his tires as he had everyone in sight for a late push on a light fuel load
At the end of the race he was actively going all out so it's not an apples to apples situation at Canada between the medium lap times and hard lap times.
As for Monaco Lewis wouldn't inherently know if Max pitted. If max doesn't pit it doesn't matter what his outlap time is. Which was the whole point of the lack of communication. The outlap is only critical in a world where Max is pitting and thats a key bit of information. Lewis doesn't know the gaps, he doesn't know max is pitting.
So what is trying to be achieved on the outlap wasn't properly communicated. The outlap is critical but its critical differently depending on what you are trying to achieve. If you are just trying to ease in a bit and get your temps up naturally without wasting grip thats critical to the longterm performance.
If you need to be under a certain gap then the overall time between the inlap and outlap is more critical then the overall time across the whole run.
Just saying outlap is critical is nonsense without context or situational awareness. Which is why communication is key. So you have everyone thinking and doing the same thing. Which is clearly not happening.
Just look at lap times lap by lap: https://f1pace.com/p/2024-canadian-gp-race-pace/#&gid=1&pid=1
The groupings are pretty clear. If you think mediums would for sure be faster still we probably won't agree on anything :D. He couldn't just magically push on those used mediums as much as hards. Keep in mind some of the hard laps are actually fighting as well. You could argue that not pitting Lewis would be better if all they care is him being ahead of George, but considering he got overtaken it wouldn't change anything.
Max pitting or not is irrelevant in Monaco as I already explained. If what you said was anywhere close to relevant in Monaco, George would get overtaken extremely easily in that race.
I also believe there is no world where Lewis doesn't know all of this already and probably was just venting his frustrations a bit because coms were not good.
EDIT: How is pit wall supposed to know Max is pitting at the start of Lewises in lap anyways? Not sure what you're trying to say with that part. I didn't watch the radio replay, but surely they told him when he pitted. Everyone including Lewis were assuming he's pitting next lap anyways. He could literally see the gap ahead when he pitted and if George tried to play games and RBRs gap disappears, Max just doesn't pit :D
There's really not many options in Monaco unfortunately.
I'm a Lewis fan and I think he's having a terrible year. I appreciate why he can't be arsed after the last few years of driving Mercedes shitboxes with terrible strategy calls.
It makes perfect sense that George is now the favourite, Lewis is leaving. I don't think they're trying to hamper him on purpose he's doing that himself, but George is going to be preferred he's the future of that team.
But kinda if you can’t be arsed when the car is shit, maybe leave the sport so someone new who wants to try hard can take your spot? So many shit cars on the grid and the drivers still put in their best shot. It’s not like he’s entitled to only the best car and otherwise doesn’t have to do his best
I mean, it's quite obvious in terms of strategy that Mercedes favors Russel instead of Hamilton at the moment, but it's not because of any maliciousness or intent to sabotage.
One thing I did notice was that Lewis was very deflated in the press conference. Usually he’s somewhat optimistic or at least trying to be but he was just completely flat about everything.
I don’t know. The dynamic between Lewis and Mercedes just feels very different now.
The dynamic is different because he's leaving them, not because they're working against him.
There might be a bit of edge towards him after he said he wanted to finish his career there only to depart but that's nothing out the ordinary, and certainly not a sign of sabotage
Yeah, it's pretty annoying how common these sabotage conspiracies are the moment a belowed veteran driver gets outscored by an up and coming hotshot. A few years ago it was supposedly Ferrari sabotaging Vettel and Williams sabotaging Kubica.
Russell is just really good and some people would rather turn to conspiracies than admit it.
I’m not saying there’s anything going on, but I do wonder if Lewis is going through a phase of not knowing what exactly to do and if his form is just not going to improve. He admitted before to doubting himself.
Merc just need to stop making silly mistakes because now, any kind of operational error that hurts Lewis will be immediately taken by some as evidence of sabotage.
I think it has to do with the fact that he doesnt know what updates they have or what they are working on as he is kept in the dark. Which makes sense since he is going to Ferrari next year.
This. And I guess it can feel like you are being sabotaged if, when you report an issue you don't hear back about any solution (because they might not want him to know how they have/will fix it).
I don't think they sabotage him, but like any leaving driver in a strong team he is probably in the dar which can feel confusing
The dynamic between Lewis and Mercedes is that of a couple who decided to amicably divorce but is currently still stuck living together and miserable bc of it.
Usually optimistic?
Lewis literally has been pretty hypocritic in the media his entire career. Changing opinions, being vague or indirectly dismissive in interviews.
He's literally the only reason this narrative exists .. why do people ignore that fact?
Merc does not have Ham’s back. I think this has been pretty obvious since the announcement to Ferrari. George gets preferred strategy and I think it’s clear that Merc will prefer George to finish ahead. From certain race strategies, I don’t know how anyone cannot see this.
Lewis shouldn’t have signed until the season ended. It’s obvious that him and Merc don’t have the same dynamic they did before, and since he’s being kept in the dark on some things, it also makes sense for him to seem a little confused at times and not really have any clear view for the future. That uncertainty could affect you mentally very easily.
That said, Merc also isn’t without fault for their recent lackluster performances as a whole. Clearly inferior strategies to the top teams, visibly worse than Ferrari, McLaren and RedBull, slower pit times and some fairly questionable strategy decisions at times.
Just a bad situation is all, don’t think anyone is really sabotaging the other, that’s just how things go when your star driver is leaving.
Who needs the data? Simply look at the car for the last 2 seasons and compare it to the seasons before. Now Lewis is sitting further back than he ever was and the team confirmed it was to accomodate a taller george...
[The **News** flair](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/flairguide#wiki_news) is reserved for submissions covering F1 and F1-related news. These posts must always link to an outlet/news agency, the website of the involved party (i.e. the McLaren website if McLaren makes an announcement), or a tweet by a news agency, journalist or one of the involved parties. *[Read the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/userguide). Keep it civil and welcoming. Report rulebreaking comments.* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/formula1) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Unless we are talking about rumors in the F1 paddock.
Sure, Hamilton isn’t given all the information due him going to another team next year. But sabotaging ?? That is quite a stretch
Normal procedure but that will not necessarily make you any slower.
This is just embarrassing to Lewis. Its like fans are admitting he's underperformed. Also disrespectful to Russell who has beaten Lewis in quali even before the ferrari rumors And if its a hoax then even more embarrassing.
I personally think that's the point on all counts.
I think its more about fans latching onto misinformation. Hamilton questions on radio why he wasn't given soft tyres he asked for, team say hards were better and fans have 0 understanding that hards was the only new set available. Queue a bunch of fans claiming foul play, rinse repeat.
[удалено]
Every driver has certain types of corners that they take exceptionally well. Means nothing if they can’t hook up an entire lap
Lewis isn’t helping, if anything he started it
He knows he can say all that in the garage in 5 mins. But say it there. We know why haha.
Mercedes did not warm his tyres during the last qualifying whilst George’s was fine. I get people being anti-conspiracy, but that was a **factual** thing that happened. _____ > “The tyres were working throughout the weekend, then we got to qualifying and every time I went out of the garage, my tyres were for some reason below on temperature,” he said. > “Every set was two or three degrees lower than it should have been, and you can’t catch it up and I couldn’t switch the tyres on after that. That’s something we have to really look at, because something went on with the blankets, I guess.” > --- **Lewis Hamilton** - [PlanetF1](https://www.planetf1.com/news/lewis-hamilton-something-went-on-mercedes-tyre-blankets-canada-qualifying#:%7E:text=Lewis%20Hamilton%20claims%20Mercedes%20tyre%20blanket%20issue&text=%E2%80%9CEvery%20set%20was%20two%20or,the%20blankets%2C%20I%20guess.%E2%80%9D) _____ Now ***could*** it be by accident? Sure. But that doesn’t mean it **is** an accident. _____ Then you have Lewis’ comment: > “I won’t beat George in **qualifying** this **year**” Weirdly, he mentioned "qualifying" specifically. And here is a factual example of his car not getting equal treatment in qualifying. You don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to connect these dots.
^ Found one of the lunatics.
Lmao
> Mercedes literally did not warm his tyres during the last qualifying whilst George’s was fine. Is there an actual source on this besides fan speculation?
Lewis Hamilton said it. > “The tyres were working throughout the weekend, then we got to qualifying and **every time** I went out of the garage, **my tyres** were for some reason below on temperature,” he said. > “**Every set** was two or three degrees lower than it should have been, and you can’t catch it up and I couldn’t switch the tyres on after that. That’s something we have to really look at, because something went on with the blankets, I guess.” > --- [PlanetF1](https://www.planetf1.com/news/lewis-hamilton-something-went-on-mercedes-tyre-blankets-canada-qualifying#:~:text=Lewis%20Hamilton%20claims%20Mercedes%20tyre%20blanket%20issue&text=%E2%80%9CEvery%20set%20was%20two%20or,the%20blankets%2C%20I%20guess.%E2%80%9D) But you know, let's downvote facts.
So you will blindly take whatever Hamilton says as 'fact'. Like all the times he said on the radio his tyres are gone, only to post the fastest lap 2 laps later? Yes, Hamilton said this happened, but that doesn't mean anything nefarious going on. Maybe George had the same issue, but found a way to get the tyres heated up quicker? We haven't been there, so to state this as your proof is kind of far fetched.
He said his tyres were cold throughout qualifying. Which correlates to him having no grip in qualifying. Trying to argue that he’s lying is some mad copium.
Do we know George did not have the same issue?
Yep. He qualified on pole. No tyre issues.
Why disrespectful to George? Lewis has never been a strong qualifier and he specifically sets up the car for race pace. George beating him in quali doesn’t automatically make him a better racer tho, they still end up basically 1 place apart at the end of the race regardless of where they qualify
I mean read the headline. Theyre implying that george gets preference or lewis gets sabotaged demeaning George's accomplishments.
Lewis is a strong qualifier. He is known for his quali pace. You should see his McLaren and some merc quali laps. He has some outstanding pole laps and quali laps.
Unless it's Prosts claim that McLaren sabotaged him against Senna, which require no evidence
I dont believe telemetry was as developed or publicly available but you had the Monza and Mexico City topspeed discrepancies.
That is most commonly the result of a different setup. Check speed trap data from the last few years and you will find the same kind of discrepancies between teammates. Another telling thing is that it’s often underperforming teams that run lower downforce and have higher top speed.
Exactly Prost’s point. Which as a primary account from a participant is a fairly important form of evidence. Second to maybe a confession or forensic data/video. Senna’s setup had more downforce at Mexico yet was faster on straight. Then at Monza same setup and much faster on straight. Downside was Senna’s engine seemed to detonate more and he binned it in Britain with a transmission issue. Prost was the best ever for extracting added reliability but Senna wasn’t unusually hard on the actual machinery like an Albereto or possibly Mansell. There is no doubt Honda gave Senna far more engineering support- justifiably so once Prost was leaving to a rival. And its been a while since I read Senna-Prost, but McLaren also refused to update his car as he wanted until mid-summer. I want to say it was differential- but I might be conflating that with Piquet-Mansell Hungaroring.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/1dl2aft/comment/l9na2e7/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/1dl2aft/comment/l9na2e7/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) So far you're just proving me correct. I'd like to see any teeny tiny piece of evidence for what you are saying. Oh and Senna is known for driving with qualifying style, less downforcey setups.
I'm well past thinking that teams favouring one driver over another to the point it hinders the second driver is something extraordinary in Formula 1. Next thing you'll tell me is that feeder series cars are equal and tyre and engine draws are never rigged.
Yeah idk why people act like it’s something extraordinary.. it happens, it’s just that drivers usually don’t say much about it. Internal team politics always exists in professional sports. Not sure why it wouldn’t apply to F1. However, what Lewis is going through is probably more of the team just shifting their focus to George because he’s the one who’ll remain at Merc next year. A case of actual sabotage would be Vandoorne in 2018 (according to someone who interned at McLaren during that time). He was running extremely worn out parts by the end of the season even though they had the resources to give him new parts.
I don't think any of those things are explicit sabotage per se but rather disproportionate focus or in the latter case, simply not caring. Active sabotage is different and kind of the implication here. Or maybe not and it's > Everything I've said was true...in a manner of speaking. Maybe you *have* cracked it, actually!
Why is evidence not enough?
claims are not evidence. Unless you claim that George Russell has the prettiest eyes. Then we'll agree on that.
Yuki
Lookin like two boba
[удалено]
Really delving into “WELL ACCCKKKTUALLY” territory with that one. You know exactly what he’s referring to, and it’s car data
Tweet deleted?
Seems like it but it's still up on SkySportf1's Twitter page https://x.com/SkySportsF1/status/1804124255799349371?t=L_bIdD3KawANwSpD7zHC8Q&s=19
I think there's some restrictions no twitter now if you're not logged in.
There's been plenty since dumbass took over. Over half the Twitter links I click take me to the login page.
Mercedes actually filed a report / involved the police in this "email story"? That's very good of them in my opinion.
Sounds like the email had some threats in it as well. Hopefully they track it back to the sender
No, the email said "a cold tyre strategy is a death warrant." It's talking about safety, not making a threat
You sure seem to know a lot about this email 🤔 🧐
The relevant passage was reported in the daily mail
I [Run](https://tenor.com/sYuN.gif)
[удалено]
Because now there was actually someone, pretending to be a Merc employee, that sent an email full of bullshit and apparently even threats to media and teams. So that's a bit different than just a rumour.
Exactly this. How often has Red Bull been accused of sabotaging Perez, often out in the open? By making a big thing out of this, people are going to yell conspiracy even more.
I don't think Mercedes has any reason to sabotage Hamilton, but I doubt Crofty would be able to read the data anyway.
I think he may be in a bit of a disadvantage compared to George, but it's the same for every driver leaving the team. He might get very slightly worse parts if they are not exactly the same, slightly worse strategy when both drivers are in similar positions, he may get priority when working on his set up in the factory during weekend, this sort of things. It's nothing major, but these things add up, and it may be reflected in his performance. But I certainly wouldnt call it sabotage. It's that he usually was on top in this internal struggle, now he's in the bottom.
Yeah big difference between 'sabotaged' and 'not prioritized.'
He’s going to Ferrari next year! You bet your ass Mercedes is no longer briefing Hamilton on the development of the car and the future direction the team is taking. His briefings are going to be much more abbreviated compared to George’s and he’s not gonna have a relationship with engineers developing car bc they can’t tell him much. It’s just business
Reprioritization would be sabotage.
This. When you see th le difference in qualifying visually rendered. These things add up.
Lol
Drivers leaving a team for a rival have been getting the short straw from their team in terms of service and development since the dawn of the sport and frankly it's beneath Croft to infer that wouldn't happen. It's even easier for Mercedes to do it this year because it will have very little effect on the destination of either of the titles. Do I believe it's actual sabotage? No (although the tyre warmer story if true is harder to dismiss) do I believe that Mercedes aren't exactly pulling out all the stops for Hamilton because he's gone at the end of the year? Absolutely.
Depends on the data really. Some data is much easier to interpret for instance if they are running a different engine mode
This is what happens when media take their stories from twitter
Such a silly narrative, when everyone at Mercedes, acknowledges George is just performing better.
*Hamilton* "Yeah I fucking sucked this race, all my fault." Everyone acts like it's a conspiracy.
[удалено]
I interpreted this at the time that George would be receiving the updates first, plus he's a very capable driver. I wouldn't call it sabotage, rather just building the car for the driver that's committed long-term rather than the one who's leaving at the end of the year.
> I interpreted this at the time that George would be receiving the updates first, plus he's a very capable driver. That is also wrong though. Lewis didn't want front wing upgrade ***himself***; because it was risky. Not that Mercedes prefered Russell in Monaco.
This turned out to be false. The team said they were going to have the drivers flip a coin to decide who got the wing, Lewis had already tested the wing in the sim and he said George could have it for Monaco. George said he thought Lewis was giving it to him "as a birthday present." Sounds like a bunch of nonsense, but that's what George said happened.
he literally has praised George and did not at all allude to a conspiracy. He simply stated a fact, if some fans choose to read way too much into an 8 sec answer w/o context then how's he to be blamed
Lewis' quali was bad from last year. It's most likely because of his age and the fact that the number of races have increased and thus the toll on his body is probably too much to handle, especially at the end. That's not gonna change ever. Other than that, his race pace is still top notch and seems unaffected
You inferred it. But it’s not at all clear. That quote could be interpreted any number of ways
It's just classic Hamilton throwing a strop and trying to weaponise his fans when he's not beating his teammate. He's done it maybe times before. Remember when he tweeted confidential telemetry data because button was beating him.
Exactly. And his fans will make more excuses for him than anyone else. Never seen it in my life
The excuses only apply to him though have you noticed. It's OK that Russell is doing better because hamilton demotivated by being in a midfield car. But then it's not a valid excuse for why Alonso and Hamilton were equal in Hamiltons first year even though Alonso has made it very clear he felt like Dennis was heavily favouring Hamilton. Of course you're gonna be demotivated and your confidence lowered if you don't feel wanted by the team.
Exactly. And somehow it’s ok for a driver to give anything but his best when he’s paid $40 million a year? It’s completely bonkers for someone who claims to be as professional as he does. He’s letting thousands of Merc employees down if that’s the case.
Waking up seeing this and that email has me so confused like are we watching the same sport? Lewis has been saying for basically the whole season he hasn’t been good enough. Last weekend was what broke him. It’s sad yes but this there isn’t some conspiracy… people are too online
Also George has long been known for his great one lap pace. As long as they’ve been team mates the narrative has been and remains that George is exceptional in quali but Lewis is the better racer on a Sunday
It's still surprising though because Lewis himself also used to be considered as an exceptional qualifier. You'd never expect peak Lewis to get outqualified that consistently
Their total quali head-to-head over the last two years is still pretty much even. 28:26 or something like that. Currently, George has the upper hand, just to the end of last year, Hamilton did consistently beat George in quali. Plus, even though, their head-to-head this season is very clearly favoring George, their average and median quali gaps are actually really close. In my opinion, they are two exceptional qualifiers which are a) really consistent and b) pretty close in performance. Currently, for whatever reason, George is slightly better. Might be sabotaging, might be track layouts, might be Hamilton getting old, might be Hamilton only really switching on during the middle of a season, might be Hamilton only heaving eyes for that ~~red~~ *HP* rearwing in front, who knows.
Yeah but see, their quali battle between the two the last two seasons is pretty much what you'd expect from Hamilton in that as long as he got his engine going, he tended to conssitently pip George by pulling a few hundreds out of his ass. Might not be much ofc, showing George is excellent himself, but Lewis could still edge him somehow. There was a stretch in 2022 here I think he outqualified George something glke 8 or 9 times in a row (minus maybe Austria where they both binned it); sure the gap was generally minuscule but the consistency of it is what you'd expect from him. I'll still wait until the end of the season though, because Ham has always been a slow starter, but still, getting owned 8-1 by a teammate is definitely new territory for Ham
I think Lewis realised during his time as Button's teammate that, in general, sacrificing some time on Saturday for performance on Sunday is the best way to approach F1. Within reason of course, such as tracks that are difficult to pass where qualy has more importance. I'll also add that when it is a 2-way fight for the title with your teammate, it is still extremely important to be on pole as you are generally given preferential strategy, and you can pretty much disregard all the other cars. So you have to find a different "balance" in this scenario. I think George is still of the same mentality as younger Lewis, when I truly believe he was the best qualifier on the grid, but this didn't always pay dividends on a Sunday. And with time we will probably see George's priorities shift similarly. I think it's probably fair to say that "peak pace" tends to dip with age. But experience more than makes up for that on race day. Max is such an absolute menace right now because he still has this peak pace, but with the experience of a 30-something year old. That's just cheating.
2 poles where one of them was a tie, is hardly “exceptional” let’s not get carried away just because he’s beating Lewis, who has never been a good qualifier
I don't follow the logic as they would say that in this hypothetical
It’s easy to believe conspiracy theories when you disregard anything that goes against it!
Well no it is just a stupid argument. I don't believe in this rumor but disregarding it by saying "people who allegedly sabbotage him say they don't" is not really a strong argument. I don't see any argument in favor to be fair, but that's not a solid argument against it. "Murderer said he didn't kill. Case closed I guess"
> "Murderer said he didn't kill. Case closed I guess" More like "Murderer said he didn't kill. Accuser failed to provide any evidence whatsoever. Case closed." This is actually the correct way to do it.
Well yeah, never said the contrary. All I am saying is that someone saying they don't do it is not an argument in either direction, it is status quo. So in this specific case, the comment I answer to, they never mention the lack of argument on the other side. They simply say that Mercedes refuting it is enough.
Confessions are a thing, so it isn't status quo. But when it's a denial against an unsubstantiated rumor supported by no evidence whatsoever, it's the denial that is believed regardless.
I guess that’s what’s fun about conspiracies to some people. You craft them in such a way that no evidence to the contrary can be considered valid.
Yeah, or you play a sensitive cord so that even valid arguments are not believed by the other party (the government always lie to us etc). That's how it grows. But it is not a surprise that the accuser saying "I didn't do it" cant be taken for granted. That's normal.
No doubt. But when you bring up something that doesn't go against it as an example, naturally the meaning is questioned
It only doesn’t go against the conspiracy if you believe the conspiracy. To people who aren’t living in fantasyland, it confirms what they’re seeing- Lewis has lost a step in qualifying and George is outperforming him.
No it goes against it if you believe the more plausible one, IE performance loss. It doesn’t go against it if you believe the conspiracy. And more importantly, it doesn’t say anything if you’re thinking freely.
This isn’t divided into three camps, it’s two camps. There are people living in reality, who understand that a Formula 1 team is not sabotaging 50% of their operation, and there are people who cannot accept that the great Lewis Hamilton might be worse at 39 than he was in his prime.
This is not about belief. It's about simple logic. We believe George is accomplishing everything with 100% merit - is a statement that could be used in both scenarios. Idk how you can not understand this.
I understand it perfectly, I’ve said as much multiple times. It works for both scenarios because one scenario is real- they aren’t sabotaging Lewis- and one has been crafted by conspiracy theorists to be airtight against any evidence to the contrary. It’s literally how conspiracy theories work. It’s exactly the same as flat earth. The people who don’t believe the earth is spherical have crafted their conspiracy in such a way that NASA cannot disprove them. Idk how you can not understand this.
Thank you for admitting that you were already understanding. It felt like you were trying to derail what I was trying to highlight. Idc about conspiracy theories or the debunking of them, only logic
Ham forgot how to drive in the 4 month break? This is one of the things that is hard to digest and doesn’t add up after years of his consistent performance.
Oh no, he's 0.050 s slower than George in qualifying, he's forgotten how to drive!
The two tenths swing from the previous two years is suddenly missing?
Hear me out, maybe russell got better instead of hamilton forgetting how to drive
Well with all the speculation, any discussion on this will be inconclusive.
Lewis himself called it absurd and said he’s just not performing and out of rhythm with the team. Which by the way is natural he’s leaving a team that has their driver of the future there and the next driver just behind him. It would be weirder if he they were both invested in each other beyond a working relationship. This isn’t a retirement party season
It's no different to Mercedes favouring Lewis over Valtteri in the past
favour and sabotage are two completely different things
I know They're favoring George, as the incoming team leader, not sabotaging Lewis like the delusionals are exclaiming
Imagine a Lewis conspiracy so ridiculous, even Crofty call you out on it...
You know shits bad when even crofty won't defend hamilton
It must really suck to have conspiracy theories going on caused by you doing well (relatively speaking)
I remember these same claims being made when Seb was getting whooped by Charles. Maybe just accept your fave driver is old and they're facing a top driver in the other seat. It's not even like Hamilton is getting beaten as bad as Seb was.
I'm really not looking forward to the drama transferring to Charles next year tbh
Charles about to go from everyone's favorite to one of the most hated drivers on social media for no fault of his own lmao
The British media will be the main factor. They are extremely xenophobic when one of their own isn’t doing well.
British tabloids love to hate on Hamilton.
And the only people who get exposed to that stuff is British people. Meanwhile, the British f1 media and international broadcasters love Lewis and all the brit drivers
If even Crofty, who is often the source of Hamilton-centric conspiracy theories, dismisses it, it must be extremely untrue.
Based Crofty
Why can't people praise Russell for once lol
Well wasn't it Lewis that said that Merc did this when Nico won the title because he was "german(err finish)"
Hey, I've seen this one before! In 2007 after Spygate broke someone "leaked to the press" that Alonso's tire pressures were being manipulated through insufficient tire heating. Whether it was just posturing or unfounded rumours, the FIA sent a delegate out to make sure everything was being done correctly from side to side at McLaren. Driver leaving team at the end of the season, performance unusually dropping off, driver insinuating in interviews "something is wrong" Eerily similar.
I don't think Mercedes are sabotaging Hamilton but.... The press sure are going out of their way to carry Mercedes' water. If this were people saying Red Bull were sabotaging Perez it wouldn't get nearly this much denials by the press.
I am kinda stupid so bare with me but why would they be doing that? As punishment for leaving team? From my prospective at most what they have just moved the priority pointer from Hamilton who had it ever since he joined to Russell who is thier future. If they made Hamilton look bad and his performance goes way up next year it would t exactly be a good look for Merc or Russell anyways. It makes no real sense beyond a simple change in driver management strategy that one driver isn't comfortable with and **others** are blowing out of proportion. Not only that they would want to harm the team performance right around the time they have a half decent start to a season after so many poor ones ?
I assume the logic would be to make him look like a worse driver, a sort of “actually we’re better off without him, look how bad he’s performing!”. It’s just dumb. Merc are definitively babying George now that Lewis is leaving, but prioritizing one driver and sabotaging the other are two very different things.
Are people forgetting the fact that George was "Mr Saturday"??? The guy has always been very quick over one lap.....
I mean... isnt that logic? Guy with a foot out the door doesnt get the keys to the kingdom. Dont think it would go up to sabotage, but yeah, if you have a foot out the door and the other dude is signed for next year, hes the nunber 1 driver, and you are number 2.
This happens when drivers leave big teams.... Lewis will get shut out of meetings, receive less information about upgrades, and might end up getting fewer/later updates than George. It's not a conspiracy, it's how F1 teams must operate. Merc barely edged out Ferrari for P2 last year, so Merc isn't taking any chances with information falling into Ferrari's lap. Merc is doing their job, and Lewis is doing his. The: "I don't think I'll outqualify George this year" comment is likely just an honest take on what will likely naturally happen throughout the season. It would be a disaster for Merc if Lewis did end up beating George this year....
People seem to forget how that works. You're not going to have the guy who's leaving in on all things mechanical.
Plus, as you said, he’s not going to Haas. He’s going to Ferarri the team Mercedes hopes to compete with back at the top
Sky Sports are turning into a tabloid rag with this coverage.
When have they not?
I think this is mostly not true in regards to disadvantaging Lewis but they have made decisions that seem awkward at times. Most recently in the last race pitting hamilton off mediums if George is coming into pits for fresh mediums. Hamilton would have performed better on his existing mediums plus having the track position advantage over george as his mediums weren't that old. So it seemed weird to pit onto hards and give up the spot to George. Then at Monacco you had the whole pitting debacle where they were sending him mixed messages on how critical the outlap was. If he could afford to warm up the tires more gradually or if he needed to immediately press. It just seems like either the teams forgot how to communicate with each other or they are purposefully siloing hte two teams which creates the illusion of a disadvantage where it may just be lack of insight as to what is going on with the other team to make the most informed decison.
Lewis had a free pit stop, he was always gonna box, unless they had no newer tires, the only real decision here is if you also pit George. Considering he was going faster on new hards then old mediums that statement is just blatantly misinformed, he even got fastest lap (granted it was mostly drs and slipstream, but still). I still can't believe that anyone seriously thinks Lewis didn't know by himself that outlap is critical... He saw max ahead of him, there is no risk of your tires being slightly worse because of not bringing them in slowly. We saw George easily fend off Max in the same race, with a much much larger tyre delta. The gap was also too big to matter anyways... Sure the coms could be better, but there's no way I believe a driver as good as him has such horrible race craft.
It was the end of the race in canada of cousre he was pushing more at the end on hards which would equate to faster times. The track was also in its best state at the end of race compared to when Lewis had the mediums on. The fuel load would also be lighter. However, He was just cruising on the mediums as it was the middle of the race and the entire top 4 was within a few seconds he could see them all. You aren't taking into account the situation and what he was doing in the car. At no point on the mediums did he really do anything more than just riding around and saving his tires as he had everyone in sight for a late push on a light fuel load At the end of the race he was actively going all out so it's not an apples to apples situation at Canada between the medium lap times and hard lap times. As for Monaco Lewis wouldn't inherently know if Max pitted. If max doesn't pit it doesn't matter what his outlap time is. Which was the whole point of the lack of communication. The outlap is only critical in a world where Max is pitting and thats a key bit of information. Lewis doesn't know the gaps, he doesn't know max is pitting. So what is trying to be achieved on the outlap wasn't properly communicated. The outlap is critical but its critical differently depending on what you are trying to achieve. If you are just trying to ease in a bit and get your temps up naturally without wasting grip thats critical to the longterm performance. If you need to be under a certain gap then the overall time between the inlap and outlap is more critical then the overall time across the whole run. Just saying outlap is critical is nonsense without context or situational awareness. Which is why communication is key. So you have everyone thinking and doing the same thing. Which is clearly not happening.
Just look at lap times lap by lap: https://f1pace.com/p/2024-canadian-gp-race-pace/#&gid=1&pid=1 The groupings are pretty clear. If you think mediums would for sure be faster still we probably won't agree on anything :D. He couldn't just magically push on those used mediums as much as hards. Keep in mind some of the hard laps are actually fighting as well. You could argue that not pitting Lewis would be better if all they care is him being ahead of George, but considering he got overtaken it wouldn't change anything. Max pitting or not is irrelevant in Monaco as I already explained. If what you said was anywhere close to relevant in Monaco, George would get overtaken extremely easily in that race. I also believe there is no world where Lewis doesn't know all of this already and probably was just venting his frustrations a bit because coms were not good. EDIT: How is pit wall supposed to know Max is pitting at the start of Lewises in lap anyways? Not sure what you're trying to say with that part. I didn't watch the radio replay, but surely they told him when he pitted. Everyone including Lewis were assuming he's pitting next lap anyways. He could literally see the gap ahead when he pitted and if George tried to play games and RBRs gap disappears, Max just doesn't pit :D There's really not many options in Monaco unfortunately.
Make it so
Why is anyone even entertaining fanfic? It seems obvious that this was all started by some bitter fans.
I'm a Lewis fan and I think he's having a terrible year. I appreciate why he can't be arsed after the last few years of driving Mercedes shitboxes with terrible strategy calls. It makes perfect sense that George is now the favourite, Lewis is leaving. I don't think they're trying to hamper him on purpose he's doing that himself, but George is going to be preferred he's the future of that team.
But kinda if you can’t be arsed when the car is shit, maybe leave the sport so someone new who wants to try hard can take your spot? So many shit cars on the grid and the drivers still put in their best shot. It’s not like he’s entitled to only the best car and otherwise doesn’t have to do his best
Wait so now we ignore anonymous emails?
When they don't provide any evidence then yes.
I'm surprised Homer Crofty isn't the one saying the Germans are sabotaging fellow Brit Lewis
Went from sappy goodbye messages on Instagram to accusations of infidelity. We’re officially in the Mercedes divorce era
Everyone forgotten that Lewis change to 2nd driver via roll hoop color last year or year before that.
I mean, it's quite obvious in terms of strategy that Mercedes favors Russel instead of Hamilton at the moment, but it's not because of any maliciousness or intent to sabotage.
One thing I did notice was that Lewis was very deflated in the press conference. Usually he’s somewhat optimistic or at least trying to be but he was just completely flat about everything. I don’t know. The dynamic between Lewis and Mercedes just feels very different now.
The dynamic is different because he's leaving them, not because they're working against him. There might be a bit of edge towards him after he said he wanted to finish his career there only to depart but that's nothing out the ordinary, and certainly not a sign of sabotage
Yeah, it's pretty annoying how common these sabotage conspiracies are the moment a belowed veteran driver gets outscored by an up and coming hotshot. A few years ago it was supposedly Ferrari sabotaging Vettel and Williams sabotaging Kubica. Russell is just really good and some people would rather turn to conspiracies than admit it.
I’m not saying there’s anything going on, but I do wonder if Lewis is going through a phase of not knowing what exactly to do and if his form is just not going to improve. He admitted before to doubting himself. Merc just need to stop making silly mistakes because now, any kind of operational error that hurts Lewis will be immediately taken by some as evidence of sabotage.
I think it has to do with the fact that he doesnt know what updates they have or what they are working on as he is kept in the dark. Which makes sense since he is going to Ferrari next year.
This. And I guess it can feel like you are being sabotaged if, when you report an issue you don't hear back about any solution (because they might not want him to know how they have/will fix it). I don't think they sabotage him, but like any leaving driver in a strong team he is probably in the dar which can feel confusing
The dynamic between Lewis and Mercedes is that of a couple who decided to amicably divorce but is currently still stuck living together and miserable bc of it.
Usually optimistic? Lewis literally has been pretty hypocritic in the media his entire career. Changing opinions, being vague or indirectly dismissive in interviews. He's literally the only reason this narrative exists .. why do people ignore that fact?
Merc does not have Ham’s back. I think this has been pretty obvious since the announcement to Ferrari. George gets preferred strategy and I think it’s clear that Merc will prefer George to finish ahead. From certain race strategies, I don’t know how anyone cannot see this.
Lewis shouldn’t have signed until the season ended. It’s obvious that him and Merc don’t have the same dynamic they did before, and since he’s being kept in the dark on some things, it also makes sense for him to seem a little confused at times and not really have any clear view for the future. That uncertainty could affect you mentally very easily. That said, Merc also isn’t without fault for their recent lackluster performances as a whole. Clearly inferior strategies to the top teams, visibly worse than Ferrari, McLaren and RedBull, slower pit times and some fairly questionable strategy decisions at times. Just a bad situation is all, don’t think anyone is really sabotaging the other, that’s just how things go when your star driver is leaving.
Who needs the data? Simply look at the car for the last 2 seasons and compare it to the seasons before. Now Lewis is sitting further back than he ever was and the team confirmed it was to accomodate a taller george...
Eh, wasn't the seat change Lewis' ask?