2022 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[Chuckjr]

He has just been very spoiled in all the years of Mercedes dominance.

Truth.

Didn’t Lewis say he was going to come back this year stronger than ever? So much for that. He seems weaker than ever if you watched his post quali interview.

I’m waiting for Barcelona. If Merc don’t improve the car, get ready for Lewis to completely meltdown. It will be just like the old days.

I expect Russell to start handing out beat downs regularly as the season wears on and the car stays slow. George will work better with the team as his attitude will be more consistently positive, blame free, and “can do” oriented. Lewis on the other hand looks like he’s super low energy, doesn’t want to fight, and pissed at the team.

[dialtone]

He has just been very spoiled in all the years of Mercedes dominance.

Truth.

Didn’t Lewis say he was going to come back this year stronger than ever? So much for that. He seems weaker than ever if you watched his post quali interview.

I’m waiting for Barcelona. If Merc don’t improve the car, get ready for Lewis to completely meltdown. It will be just like the old days.

I expect Russell to start handing out beat downs regularly as the season wears on and the car stays slow. George will work better with the team as his attitude will be more consistently positive, blame free, and “can do” oriented. Lewis on the other hand looks like he’s super low energy, doesn’t want to fight, and pissed at the team.

He's been spoiled yes, but no driver would be happy being in the situation he is, few years from retirement, entering engine freeze and new regulation and seeing that they are so far behind even other Merc powered teams.

Lewis attitude isn't the best, never has been, but there's a big gulf between being upset and a complete meltdown. Russell is lucky enough to have a seat in a team like that, something for which he lobbied hard and even had unkind words for Bottas, I wouldn't pick him as the white knight in this story, he's just excited to be part of Merc and is in honeymoon phase, Lewis has 2, maybe 3 years in front of him and then he's probably retiring.

[Chuckjr]

He has just been very spoiled in all the years of Mercedes dominance.

Truth.

Didn’t Lewis say he was going to come back this year stronger than ever? So much for that. He seems weaker than ever if you watched his post quali interview.

I’m waiting for Barcelona. If Merc don’t improve the car, get ready for Lewis to completely meltdown. It will be just like the old days.

I expect Russell to start handing out beat downs regularly as the season wears on and the car stays slow. George will work better with the team as his attitude will be more consistently positive, blame free, and “can do” oriented. Lewis on the other hand looks like he’s super low energy, doesn’t want to fight, and pissed at the team.

He's been spoiled yes, but no driver would be happy being in the situation he is, few years from retirement, entering engine freeze and new regulation and seeing that they are so far behind even other Merc powered teams.

Lewis attitude isn't the best, never has been, but there's a big gulf between being upset and a complete meltdown. Russell is lucky enough to have a seat in a team like that, something for which he lobbied hard and even had unkind words for Bottas, I wouldn't pick him as the white knight in this story, he's just excited to be part of Merc and is in honeymoon phase, Lewis has 2, maybe 3 years in front of him and then he's probably retiring.

He should learn from Fred—who also is in his twilight years in a car that’s not at the pointy end, but nevertheless is full of positivity and a “can do” perspective. The entire team benefits. Lewis just unapologetically takes the team down with his negativity. It’s always been a characteristic of his I’ve loathed for the sake of the team. He did it at Macca also and it really left my cheese in the wind back in the day. He’s a petulant man.

[littlebigcat]

Would that be "GP2 Engine" Fred?

[dialtone]

Truth.

Didn’t Lewis say he was going to come back this year stronger than ever? So much for that. He seems weaker than ever if you watched his post quali interview.

I’m waiting for Barcelona. If Merc don’t improve the car, get ready for Lewis to completely meltdown. It will be just like the old days.

I expect Russell to start handing out beat downs regularly as the season wears on and the car stays slow. George will work better with the team as his attitude will be more consistently positive, blame free, and “can do” oriented. Lewis on the other hand looks like he’s super low energy, doesn’t want to fight, and pissed at the team.

He's been spoiled yes, but no driver would be happy being in the situation he is, few years from retirement, entering engine freeze and new regulation and seeing that they are so far behind even other Merc powered teams.

Lewis attitude isn't the best, never has been, but there's a big gulf between being upset and a complete meltdown. Russell is lucky enough to have a seat in a team like that, something for which he lobbied hard and even had unkind words for Bottas, I wouldn't pick him as the white knight in this story, he's just excited to be part of Merc and is in honeymoon phase, Lewis has 2, maybe 3 years in front of him and then he's probably retiring.

He should learn from Fred—who also is in his twilight years in a car that’s not at the pointy end, but nevertheless is full of positivity and a “can do” perspective. The entire team benefits. Lewis just unapologetically takes the team down with his negativity. It’s always been a characteristic of his I’ve loathed for the sake of the team. He did it at Macca also and it really left my cheese in the wind back in the day. He’s a petulant man.

Alonso is now back able to fight for Q3 on a regular basis after years of terrible results from the 2014-5 Ferrari, to McHonda to retirement to back in Renault and now Alpine never fighting for the top 10 consistently and now suddenly he's qualifying really well in Australia, top 5 here, easy to be positive when that's your perspective. But he's the GP2 engine guy on the radio when Honda wasn't working right...

[silver]

I think Hamilton is not happy that Mercedes is still sandbagging.

[PlatinumZealot]

Lewis not happy about the setup direction. Not the first time. Mercedes tend to trust their computers more than what they see in front of them.

Source?

Media pen interview.

[PlatinumZealot]

He has just been very spoiled in all the years of Mercedes dominance.

Truth.

Didn’t Lewis say he was going to come back this year stronger than ever? So much for that. He seems weaker than ever if you watched his post quali interview.

I’m waiting for Barcelona. If Merc don’t improve the car, get ready for Lewis to completely meltdown. It will be just like the old days.

I expect Russell to start handing out beat downs regularly as the season wears on and the car stays slow. George will work better with the team as his attitude will be more consistently positive, blame free, and “can do” oriented. Lewis on the other hand looks like he’s super low energy, doesn’t want to fight, and pissed at the team.

Russell in more the meltdown type of character but for now he's just happy being at Mercedes.

Lewis is fine. The car is not really at point where driving styles matter anyway, and he has had the pace on George when the tyres are warm, and in more direct conditions. We just have to wait and see how things are once the porpoising is greatly reduced. But so far so good that George is able to carry the ball.

[jurinius]

You d'ont have to be a genius to notice that Russel has nothing to loose at this point. He is making everything to get himself comfortable with the car he had.

Speaking about Lewis, you can see he is expecting strong and quick improvement which are not happening for now. When he finally accept that you can see that he is kill.ing Russel times in race. He is doing what he has to do to keep pressure on the team, if there was no Lewis, maybe Merc should have already accept that they failed to build a competitive car this year and be happy with Russel results.

[silver]

You d'ont have to be a genius to notice that Russel has nothing to loose at this point. He is making everything to get himself comfortable with the car he had.

Speaking about Lewis, you can see he is expecting strong and quick improvement which are not happening for now. When he finally accept that you can see that he is kill.ing Russel times in race. He is doing what he has to do to keep pressure on the team, if there was no Lewis, maybe Merc should have already accept that they failed to build a competitive car this year and be happy with Russel results.

Keeping pressure on team was patented right of Ferrari management of the yore and see how well it served. Throwing team under the bus is the best way to kill to their motivation.

Russell's results is what has contributed to where Mercedes stands in constructor's currently. 2 out of 4 races, Russell has been the reference to the true pace of the car.

[ringo]

He has just been very spoiled in all the years of Mercedes dominance.

Truth.

Didn’t Lewis say he was going to come back this year stronger than ever? So much for that. He seems weaker than ever if you watched his post quali interview.

I’m waiting for Barcelona. If Merc don’t improve the car, get ready for Lewis to completely meltdown. It will be just like the old days.

I expect Russell to start handing out beat downs regularly as the season wears on and the car stays slow. George will work better with the team as his attitude will be more consistently positive, blame free, and “can do” oriented. Lewis on the other hand looks like he’s super low energy, doesn’t want to fight, and pissed at the team.

Remember last year he was comforted by the possibility that he could fight for the 2022 title, so decided not to protest the FIA. Now him and Toto wished they should have fought to get what was stolen from them. Now the car is no good, Lewis must really feel robbed by now.
Other than that, I think you are reading too much into something that is not there. Max and Sainz and even Charles have shown much more whinging for even lesser things. Hamilton is just frustrated of how far the team have fallen, given last year's events.
Russel wont be handing down any beat downs. So far I do not think Hamilton is worried about George at all. He is not showing Lewis a clean pair of heels since the season started. The odd qualifying here or there under traffic and setup differences will happen. Today's qualy wasn't a big deal. Nothing to worry about.

[JordanMugen]

Russell's results is what has contributed to where Mercedes stands in constructor's currently. 2 out of 4 races, Russell has been the reference to the true pace of the car.

Russell is doing a great job, and it is really strange the way the Mercedes' drivers talk so negatively in interviews despite having a really solid midfield car. Though of the two Mercedes drivers, Russell's comments seem more measured and upbeat.

[zibby43]

Russell's results is what has contributed to where Mercedes stands in constructor's currently. 2 out of 4 races, Russell has been the reference to the true pace of the car.

Russell is doing a great job, and it is really strange the way the Mercedes' drivers talk so negatively in interviews despite having a really solid midfield car. Though of the two Mercedes drivers, Russell's comments seem more measured and upbeat.

Yeah, I wonder why the reigning Constructors champions are disappointed to be in the midfield in Imola qualifying?

Hmmmm. Life’s mysteries.

But, the people who suffered watching Mercedes eviscerate *their* teams for the past 8 years are enjoying their schadenfreude right now.

No need to be coy about it. Ya ain’t fooling anyone

[cheeRS]

Truth.

Didn’t Lewis say he was going to come back this year stronger than ever? So much for that. He seems weaker than ever if you watched his post quali interview.

I’m waiting for Barcelona. If Merc don’t improve the car, get ready for Lewis to completely meltdown. It will be just like the old days.

I expect Russell to start handing out beat downs regularly as the season wears on and the car stays slow. George will work better with the team as his attitude will be more consistently positive, blame free, and “can do” oriented. Lewis on the other hand looks like he’s super low energy, doesn’t want to fight, and pissed at the team.

He's been spoiled yes, but no driver would be happy being in the situation he is, few years from retirement, entering engine freeze and new regulation and seeing that they are so far behind even other Merc powered teams.

Lewis attitude isn't the best, never has been, but there's a big gulf between being upset and a complete meltdown. Russell is lucky enough to have a seat in a team like that, something for which he lobbied hard and even had unkind words for Bottas, I wouldn't pick him as the white knight in this story, he's just excited to be part of Merc and is in honeymoon phase, Lewis has 2, maybe 3 years in front of him and then he's probably retiring.

He should learn from Fred—who also is in his twilight years in a car that’s not at the pointy end, but nevertheless is full of positivity and a “can do” perspective. The entire team benefits. Lewis just unapologetically takes the team down with his negativity. It’s always been a characteristic of his I’ve loathed for the sake of the team. He did it at Macca also and it really left my cheese in the wind back in the day. He’s a petulant man.

You mean the Fred that, when he was Lewis' age, constantly moaned on the radio about his slow car, made sarcastic and public comments on the radio every race? Interesting point of reference.

As for everyone who reads a couple quotes and excerpts from media interviews and then makes sweeping generalizations about a driver's attitude or motivation... can you really be that naïve? Do you also read a couple of news headlines every day and pretend to be an expert on world events? Think of all the feedback and criticism that a driver might give during an entire race week, and compare that with what we actually hear or read quoted from that driver - it's probably less than 0.1%.

But yeah, go ahead and assume that Lewis is a poor sport and team-undermine-r because you heard a snippet where he said "the team could have done better."

[silver]

You mean the Fred that, when he was Lewis' age, constantly moaned on the radio about his slow car, made sarcastic and public comments on the radio every race? Interesting point of reference.

As for everyone who reads a couple quotes and excerpts from media interviews and then makes sweeping generalizations about a driver's attitude or motivation... can you really be that naïve? Do you also read a couple of news headlines every day and pretend to be an expert on world events? Think of all the feedback and criticism that a driver might give during an entire race week, and compare that with what we actually hear or read quoted from that driver - it's probably less than 0.1%.

But yeah, go ahead and assume that Lewis is a poor sport and team-undermine-r because you heard a snippet where he said "the team could have done better."

The post is full of contradictions. On one hand you say Alonso made those public comments and not a good reference and on the other hand you also say such public feedback is not even 1% of the overall feedback behind the scenes. So who is reading a headline and becoming an expert here? Reading a few words a driver says on radio and making up an opinion that the driver is a bad reference.

Drivers constantly go through evolution and what Alonso said about Honda in McLaren was completely avoidable. That isn't to then say he isn't now a good reference with the work he is doing with Alpine. Schumacher set the bar with regards to how to handle difficult cars and yet not unload himself on the team when the car wasn't good. It's difficult to match such a standard, but drivers should learn to avoid public dressing down of their teams, even if that is just 1%. Definitely not when the same team gave 6 WDCs.