Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has said his Mercedes team did not listen to him in developing their 2023 Formula One car.
The Briton told reporters last week that Mercedes was on the wrong track before finishing fifth in Sunday’s Bahrain grand prix opener.
“Last year, there were a few things that I told him. I said the issues that are with the car,” Hamilton said on BBC Radio 5 Live’s “Checkered Flag” podcast.
“I’ve driven a lot of cars in my life, so I know what the car needs. I know what the car doesn’t need. I think it’s really about accountability.
“It’s about taking it upon yourself and saying, ‘Yeah, you know what? We didn’t listen to you. This is not where it’s needed and we have to work’,” he said.
“We have to find balance through corners, look at all the weak points, and just move forward as a team. That’s what we do.”
Hamilton, 38, is Formula One’s most successful driver of all time with a record 103 wins, but is out of contract at the end of the season.
He did not win a race last year, a career first for a season, but dismissed suggestions that he might hold off on a new deal until he knew how competitive his car was.
He told the BBC that there was still time for Mercedes, whose run of eight consecutive constructors’ titles ended last year, to turn the situation around.
“We’re still multiple world champions, you know? It’s just not right this time. We didn’t get it right last year. But that doesn’t mean we can’t get it right going forward,” he said. .
Team boss Toto Wolff admitted in Bahrain that Mercedes needed to rethink the car.
“I don’t think this package is ultimately going to be competitive,” Wolff said of a car that stands out for its slimmed-down sidepods in contrast to Red Bull’s solution.
“We got it wrong last year; we thought we could fix it by sticking to this concept of the car, and it didn’t work,” he said.
Red Bull’s double world champion Max Verstappen took victory in Bahrain, with Sergio Pérez scoring a couple of places. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was third in a car powered by a Mercedes engine.
