Hamilton’s shock money swipe at boss exposes seismic shift in F1 power
Lewis Hamilton has bemoaned a lack of upgrades from his Mercedes garage.
Lewis Hamilton has bemoaned a lack of upgrades from his Mercedes garage. Source: AFP
Jacob Polychronis from Fox Sports
June 28th, 2021 8:05 am
Lewis Hamilton has bemoaned a lack of upgrades from his Mercedes garage, suggesting Red Bull has spent more money than his team as he falls further behind in the F1 drivers’ championship.
Red Bull won a fourth race in a row on Sunday, as Max Verstappen cruised from pole to flag at the Styrian Grand Prix to extend his lead in the title race to 18 points.
Hamilton was a distant second, finishing 35 seconds behind Verstappen in what team boss Toto Wolff said was “the first race really in eight years” where Mercedes was lacking pace.
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“It’s impossible to keep up,” seven-time world champion Hamilton told Sky Sports after the race.
“They’ve definitely made some big steps the last couple of races and we’ve not really got an answer for it.
“We’ve not brought any upgrades; I don’t remember the last time we had an upgrade. But they have. They’ve brought the engine upgrade and they’ve brought some other part of the package and it’s just eked them ahead.
“Whilst there’s a really long way to go, with speed like that we’ve not really got much that we can do. I don’t know, we’ve just got to keep pushing. I’ve got confidence in the team we’ll somehow find something.”
Pressed further on the shift of power in F1, Hamilton said the answer could be that Mercedes has placed a greater proportion of resources on developing its 2022 challenger with big technical changes on the horizon.
“I guess, ultimately, I mean — maybe they spent more money than us this year. Maybe we put more money on next year, I don’t know,” he said.
“I’m not the one that deals with the money. I’m just out there trying to drive the car to the maximum and get the best out of it, which I think we are but we somehow need to try and find some more performance.”
Wolff, however, said it wasn’t true that Red Bull has spent more, as teams are now limited to a A$190 million salary cap.
Meanwhile, rival Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said: “That is the most dominant win we’ve had so far this season against Mercedes.”
Verstappen, who has claimed three of the past four victories, agreed.
“Looking at the gap in the end, yes,” he said. “But above all, the overall balance of the car was the best so far.”
Mercedes has won the constructors’ title the last seven seasons. In that span Hamilton has won six driver titles, interrupted only by then teammate Nico Rosberg in 2016.
— With AFP
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