By James Broughton, August 5, 2024
Since the introduction of the ground effect era in 2022, Lewis Hamilton’s on-track performances have declined. Was this decline personal or mechanical? It was evident that Mercedes designed and developed a car that was incapable of winning races, let alone securing a podium finish. Indeed, Mercedes struggled with their approach to developing a competitive ground effect package. Even at the start of the 2024 F1 season, it seemed that Mercedes had yet to unlock the secrets of creating a race-winning ground effect package.
Red Bull began the 2024 season in dominant fashion, and after three races, it appeared that 2024 would be another write-off for all teams except Red Bull. However, McLaren suddenly unlocked significant performance improvements, overtaking Red Bull in the process. Mercedes then discovered additional performance, advancing from the upper midfield to the front row.
As I have always said, the fastest car will always be driven by the fastest driver, and the Mercedes W15 is now a genuine race-winning contender. Hamilton secured his second win of the season at the Belgian Grand Prix, inheriting the victory after his teammate, George Russell, was disqualified for a technical infringement.
Two races earlier, the seven-time World Champion had ended a 56-race winless streak with a victory at the British Grand Prix, which he said significantly helped address his own doubts. With his season tally now at two wins and four podiums, former F1 driver David Coulthard believes Hamilton has returned to his best form.
Formula For Success
During his podcast, Formula for Success, co-hosted by Eddie Jordan, Coulthard shared his thoughts on Hamilton’s recent upturn in fortunes:
“He seems to be back to his brilliant best as he gets into a sort of countdown to leaving with Mercedes. He’s actually got one part of his mind will be on Ferrari, it’s got to be.”
Eddie Jordan added:
“Lewis is right back on his game, I think at the beginning of the year he was without any doubt pretty much focused on joining Ferrari, getting the right people and making sure that he had Fred Vasseur on board. And that Mercedes team is going to be strong going forward but Ferrari is going to be incredibly strong.”
“Ferrari, they’re going to be a big team next year and they will be overjoyed to see the re-emergence of Lewis because no amount of saying to Ferrari, ‘Say look what we’re doing at Mercedes, don’t worry about that, we can beat George, we can beat everyone, we’re going to be powerful’.
