Lewis Hamilton’s skills behind the wheel have been called into question by former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve after the 7-time world champion has lost his “perfect car”. Despite an almost record run of success for Hamilton and his team, 2022 has coloured Mercedes with doubt as they’re now losing out to the likes of Red Bull and Ferrari.
It’s no shock that a change in regulations has meant that new teams have an advantage. This certainly isn’t a first and most definitely won’t be the last time it happens. But this new era of F1 has got professionals in the field questioning the driver after his performance so far.
The opening race of the season in Bahrain saw Hamilton gain a 3rd place podium after the two Red Bull drivers retired with power unit issues. His second race, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, saw him end in P10. Granted this was after a badly timed pit closure. His teammate George Russell finished 5th.
Villeneuve believes that now the driver can’t rely on his car’s “superior engine”, his bad weekends can’t be “camouflaged”.
He said:
“For years, bad weekends could be camouflaged by their superior engine. That is no longer the case. It will be interesting how the team will react, because Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton are not used to this. But we can already say that competing for the title is no longer an option. Lewis has always had a perfect car. He never had to push because they were so much faster.”
Ralf Schumacher, another ex-F1 driver, believes that Russell has a high change of being Mercedes’ best driver right now after experience the “troublesome” Williams car for three years compared to Lewis to, in comparison, had it easy in the Mercedes.
“Russell is also showing that Hamilton has a teammate at eye-level, which will be exciting to watch,” the younger brother of Michael Schumacher said. “Russell is not someone who will be content with his current position of the second driver.”
But he admits that he doesn’t hold out hope for Mercedes:
“But the championship is very far away from them now. By the time they can compete again, Leclerc and Verstappen will be too far ahead.”
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