Why Lewis Hamilton's Driving Style Isn't Working

Why Lewis Hamilton's Driving Style Isnt Working

Lewis has had what he calls his worst ever start to a formula one season in his career. Only 8 points and a DNF in race 3 (the Australian GP). His driving style is a famous one with his incredible braking and insane feel for an f1 car. Why does Lewis Hamilton struggle so badly with the W15 and will he regain his confidence in 2024.

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[underSTATEDexcellence]

The car is not there, he has no confidence in the car they built. He left Mercedes for a reason things have changed.

[pkuferv]

In my opinion I don’t think Lewis is washed. I think that for one, since the ground effect era the Mercedes cars he’s driving are probley some of the worst he’s ever had in his career. Two I think that he’s mentally checked out from Mercedes.

[jizzmannn]

On another note,

We’re talking about one of the greatest drivers in F1 history who actually got 3rd in the championship last year with a bad car. You can’t lose ALL your skills in a matter of 2-3 months.

The only issue with W15 is that it’s worse in terms of performance than its predecessors. Whereas other teams nailed it better than Merc this year. However, the season isn’t over yet. A lot can change.

[powerboy]

Some of the comments are quite ill informed. Now let me preface by saying that I'm a Max fan through and through.

Lewis is a multiple WDC winner. He clearly is a generational talent based on his achievements. You don't achieve that being "mediocre". You don't win championships without having three prerequisites. A good car, a good team and a good driver. Any one of those missing and you won't win any WDCs.

Lewis is in no way washed. I've had Sainz fans saying Sainz>Lewis based on Australia 2024. Lol don't make me laugh. The only reason Carlos won was because Max was effectively driving with his handbrakes on and he still pulled a 0.917 second gap to Carlos at the end of lap 1.

Lewis and Alonso are generational talents. They may not be at their prime but without them having a championship contending car we can make zero inferences to that. Give them a good car and they'll win races. Simple.

In fact Lewis and Alonso are the only drivers on the grid on the same plane as Verstappen and can truly best him if given the right car. My only hope is to see a three way battle between these three legends before they drive off into the sunset. A repeat of 2021 if you will.

Even Max was no where in championship contention until he got his machinery right. Lewis hasn't forgotten how to drive lol. Wait for 2025.

[neilpateldpt]

I hate the that people think he washed. Granted, as a champ, adaptability should always be in your bag, but hard to perform when the car does not respond

[MclarenF]

We all know lewis Hamilton likes a strong, and stable rear end… one of the many reasons he got together with Shakira

[erqey]

The fundamental issue is that the car simply isn't there. Mercedes still hasn't figured out how to generate consistent predictable downforce under these regulations, and especially under yaw conditions (aka while the car is turning). Lewis's performance this season has very little to do with his braking ability, every driver on the grid uses trail braking, and braking deep into the corner isn't always the best way to approach a corner. How late one brakes has more to do with the nature of the corner and what comes after that corner, than it does with a specific driving style. It's also not what makes Lewis Hamilton a great racecar driver, and only a single element of a driving style. Driving style is a the tiny differences in how drivers chose to approach different types of corners and their mental model for how each car handles. While some drivers do brake later than others and use slightly different cornering techniques; *The reality is that every car has an optimal way for it to be driven in order to extract the fastest lap time from it. What makes a world-class driver is their ability to rapidly understand the best way to drive the each car and then adapt their driving style to extract all the potential performance in each car* .

Every car has a performance ceiling, at any time there is an absolute fastest possible time that it can get around any track. The best a driver can do is get as close as possible to that best possible time, no matter how good a driver is, they can't go any faster than the car will allow them to. The limiting factors on the Mercedes are just what happens when the drivers have to be constantly pushing and overdrive the car as they attempt to stay competitive. For the Mercedes the limiting factor that shows up first (the rear-end instability) is also something which Lewis is particularly sensitive to. Regardless of driving style, Mercedes haven't made a car which is fast enough to truly compete or beat Red Bull. Period.

The fact that Lewis really likes a strong rear end is a compounding issue. He has to have confidence in the rear of the car to really push. And without consistent predictable downforce, Lewis cannot be sure what the rear of the car is going to do on corner entry and mid-corner. But, no matter what, the cars under these regs are going to have much less consistent and predictable rear-ends compared to the previous regulations.

F1 banned the advanced suspensions that teams were using under the previous regulations, and also changed the tire size and reduced the size of the side walls (which makes the tires themselves less compliant under load). With how stiff the suspension has to be on the ground effect cars and how low to the ground they are, the cars have much more sensitive and twitchy rear-ends by nature. When it comes to driving style, Max Verstappen is the one who likes an extremely positive front-end and is fine with the rear sliding all over the place. He brakes relatively early, so that he can have the car set up exactly how he want's on corner entry and uses the super positive front-end and loose rear to get all his rotation done early, in order to have the car as straight as possible on corner exit. So it's more of a V shaped corner instead of a U shape. But as I said, every car has a specific way it must be driven to extract the fastest lap from it, so these driving styles are a relatively minor factor when it comes to the fastest drivers, except that the teams will sometimes try to build a car which fits the style of their driver if they can do so without compromising the absolute potential of the car significantly (it's more of a luxury than a priority).

That rear-end instability on corner entry and mid-corner is also part of what contributed to George Russel's crash. He's willing to go 100% and push, even when he's at a very high risk of loosing the rear. That's why all it took was giving slightly too much braking force in response to Alonso slowing down when he wasn't expecting it, for the car to get unsettled and for him to loose the rear. Overall, I can only imagine how difficult it is to remain razor focused on F1 and extracting 100% from a car when you know it isn't competitive and your still capable of being a WDC if given a competitive car. He managed to keep up that motivation for years with a non-competitive Mercedes and knows he's going to a different team next year. Assuming Ferrari can make a competitive car for Lewis next season that allows him to actually compete with Red Bull, I expect Lewis to be just as good as he's always been. He didn't become a 7x WDC and win 100s of races in spec series prior to getting into F1 by being a bad driver. He's still one of the greatest racecar drivers to ever exist. But as I said, even the greatest driver in the world can only go as fast as the absolute limit of the car they are in.

[jonnylesinge]

‘Qualifying was never his thing!!!’ 😂 quite a statement about the driver with the most poles in F1 history. 104 to the next closest at 68 (MS).

[DangeloGedeon]

A lot of people love doubting Lewis and that’s fine. To me there’s nothing wrong with his driving style right now and he hasn’t made any changes to it.

The moment a driver his age has to change driving styles with a struggling tells me hes doubting his own ability and Lewis has never once said in these regs, "I’ve had to change my driving style" once.

If you look at the onboards of his cars in post 22 vs pre 22 regs they are very much the same. The only difference is the stability and balance of the car. It doesn’t make sense for a driver like LH to finish in P3 for these regs in 23 and then out of nowhere in many peoples eyes look like a "shell of his former self" this is why I say don’t be surprised when he looks a lot better in the Ferrari.

If anything these last couple of weeks where Ollie, Charles, and Carlos showed that this newly revised Ferrari is balanced for many different driving styles. It will suit LH as well. Anyone that says he’s "washed" are giving lazy opinions.

I’m not judging Lewis at all this year even if he loses to George. I’m judging him next year when he faces a guy that’s even better than George. Lewis has always faced competitive teammates barring two drivers (Bottas and Kovo).

We need those to keep their same energy when he starts performing in a Ferrari. Lewis doesn’t exist to be fighting for P10 - P5s. There’s no trophies in fighting for that and no one will remember a driver who’s done that. Wins and championships are all that matters for him.

1+1 never equals two in formula one.

[asdowo]

Hmmm, pretty sure it worked last weekend in Silverstone.

[ruefc]

Here’s my opinion, feel free to debate or disagree that’s fine.

First, I don’t think Lewis is washed. I feel that people forget only 2 whole seasons ago he was a strong title contender. Whether you feel 2021 finale was controversial or not it could have easily happened the other way and who knows how it would have ended with the safety car. Max drove great that season as well so hats off.

Second, I feel like a lot of F1 fans who say Lewis is washed are also those fans also want to see Ricardo in a RB seat, I love Ricardo as much as anyone else but do not feel his performance shows he deserves that.

Third and last point, Mercedes got the car wrong. They seem to dance around admitting it at first but the complete car change in 2024 shows that they know they got it wrong. I feel when Lewis was dominate everyone said it was just the car. Now RB has a good car and everyone thinks max could do the same thing in any car which is just not true.

[ediltonspencer]

Mercedes put all their hope in James Allison and fire Mike Elliot. Guess what? The car is even worse and RedBull has stolen Mike's idea and implemented it to perfection. I feel like since W13 didn't perform right from the get go, they didn't trust Elliot enough. Still Mike's car won a race, won a sprint, got dozens onf podiums. W15 is far from a podium. No hope for Mercedes.

[fernandopaulino]

The reason he's done so well is due to the imperceptible amount of steering input he puts on BEFORE he enters a corner. It doesnt change the trajectory, it asks the car for permission, he tells the car what's coming next. Cars brake better, cars turn better when you tell them what's coming next. He does that better than most

[rushabhsheth]

Great work yet again. Need a video on Danny Ric’s struggles as well.

[BridgesRoyale]

I can tell this guy is a real f1 fan. Keep it up.

[buzz]

New regs has changed the ground force effect on cars. Some drivers are having problems with that. Riccardo and Hamilton are finding it difficult to adjust

[AndyFromBeaverton]

3:15 I bet MSC probably tested the distance of an entire season of racing before the season ever started while at Ferrari.

[jacksonrodrigues]

Can you please make a video on f1 car setup. When they say, car setup, what is the actual process and what things they make changes to?

[SeanHinds]

I think it's simple actually… it's not a championship-winning car so Lewis has checked out already. George doesn’t have that luxury because he has an investment in the team and development of the car… Lewis is probably looking at the Ferraris and counting down the days when he could hopefully be competitive again.

[jamsbong]

Although there are limited testing days, this applies to all drivers so everyone is on even plane field.
Drivers can always do unlimited hours on the simulators which they do (especially the younger generations including 3x world champ Max).