The relationship between Hamilton and Mercedes has been put to the test in 2022
After 10 years of partnership between Mercedes and the English driver, marked by numerous titles, 2022 has been a challenging season for both parties due to an unfinished W13 car and increased competition with George Russell as a teammate.
After the defeat in 2021, Lewis Hamilton was determined to seek revenge against Max Verstappen.
But the race car developed by the brand with the star last year particularly gave the drivers and the team a lot of difficulties, especially in the first part of the season. The main cause was undoubtedly the tuning issue, which took several months to be resolved, quickly diminishing hopes of reclaiming the title.
A period that Andrew Shovlin, Engineering Director at Mercedes, describes as particularly challenging with the team and Hamilton seeking answers to all of their problems.
At the beginning of the year, there is no doubt, whether you were talking about the relationship between Toto and the engineering team or the relationship between the engineering team and Lewis, there was a lot of stress, pressure, and anxiety, and difficult conversations, because we simply hadn’t done a good enough job.
« I think that for Lewis, it was particularly difficult after 2021. He knew he wanted to be at his best to react in 2022, and we were unable to give him a car that would allow him to play that role. And it was really a tough period. But I think the process was a blessing in disguise for the team. »
One of the biggest challenges we had was to stay united and work together, which we managed well and I think the experience will serve us later.
The difficult cars like that one, after a series of successes, are quite challenging to manage for a team and it’s a matter of work: What are you doing well as an organization that needs to be preserved, versus what you’re not doing well and need to change? And that, once again, is a process we have been following for a good part of the year.
Shovlin indicates that at certain moments the points of tension were extreme, but that it allowed the team and Hamilton to properly position themselves for the future.
He affirmed, “There were difficult points where we know that the car we gave them in Baku, in Montreal, in Imola, and all these races – it was on the verge of being dangerous.”
« And this focuses your attention to ensure that you do not continue in this way in order to give them good material to run again.
The whole team has experienced a lot with Lewis, and it’s fantastic to have such an experienced driver when we’ve had such a challenging year. Hopefully, we have now overcome the worst of this challenge and we can move on to the next challenge, which is, I hope, to fight our way back to the front and compete for the championships.
In 2023, the Mercedes team will try to reclaim the top spot by joining the competition alongside Ferrari and Red Bull. The question remains whether they will have corrected all the flaws on the new W14, which will be unveiled on February 15th.
