F1 25 – Will Hamilton Quit? Who is to blame?
The Chris Harris podcast dug into Hamilton’s situation at Ferrari and speculated that it’s not a forgone conclusion that he will finish the season. Hamilton quitting is a possibility. You can see their conversation here.
Out of the Blue
In the podcast, Chris Cooper brought up the possibility. But what exactly did Cooper say?
Basically Lewis looks unhappy and when you have done as much as he has and when you have as much money as he has, why would you do something that makes you unhappy and therefore he might walk.
Honestly, this is not something I’d even considered. So I dug into Hamilton’s interviews at Saudi to see if there was anything to it.
Qualy Interview
Race Interview
Thoughts
Resigned is the word I’d use to describe Hamilton’s mood in the two interviews. He’s doing his best but the car is not responding. Or the team is not responding.
Where does resignation (the emotion) come from?
A slow lap time on it’s own is not going to do it. You can work on the car to make it better.
Resignation comes when people are not listening to your input. When your input is not being acted upon.
I don’t believe the other people in the team feel resigned, so Hamilton is potentially on his own here with his state of mind.
Which suggests there is a break down in communication and/or philosophy between him and his team.
Does Hamilton’s race radio reflect a dislocation of philosophy? Is Hamilton’s engineer “getting” Hamilton?
Hamilton’s Race Radio Bahrain
There is nothing alarming about the communication between Hamilton and his engineer but that’s not to say it’s great either.
My Opinion
The engineer is giving Hamilton a lot of completely useless information. There is no reason for Hamilton’s engineer to be giving him Le Clerc’s lap time (unless Hamilton is specifically asking for it or unless Charles in the next car up the road or behind).
His race engineer is giving him gaps which is fine if he does it occasionally. But it’s not occasional, it’s the main data he is giving Hamilton. He is even giving Hamilton lap times of cars which aren’t around him. What does he expect Hamilton to do with that information?
It would be much more useful if he told Hamilton by how much he was gaining/losing to the car ahead and behind.
And Hamilton regularly asks where he is losing time. He shouldn’t have to be asking. By now the engineer should be reading Hamilton’s’ mind. At the start of each lap, tell him the where you could have made time on the last lap, if it’s a consistent thing.
Generally
I think the communication highlights an ignorance on behalf on the engineer with regards to what drivers would find useful. An engineer has to give the driver actionable info and advice and give the driver feedback. In the most easy to understand way possible. And Hamilton is not getting this.
The communication as is is fine. If you have a fast car but when you don’t and instead have a driver who is trying to fast forward his learning process, the type of info Hamilton is getting is not helpful.
And in Saudi, nothing appears to have changed/improved with the feedback. In fact things seem worse.
Saudi Radio
The frustration Hamilton has with the info being given is obvious. I think the info is so far off the mark that Hamilton doesn’t know where to begin (which is another thing that would contribute to his feeling of resignation).
At what point is the engineer going to understand what Hamilton wants in the car? How many times does Hamilton have to ask?
The engineer needs to be ahead of the game, to know what the drivers needs before he asks for it. The clip above is a great example of the exasperation Hamilton is feeling. He is literally having to guide the engineer to the pertinent info one drip at a time. Anyone would be frustrated.
Is his engineer stuck in his ways? And if so, what is happening off the track? Is the engineer adapting to Hamilton or does he expect Hamilton to adjust to him?
Summing Up
If the race radio is a sample of the bigger picture, Hamilton is trying. He is spelling out exactly what he needs but he is not understood by the team or the team are passively disagreeing with him.
And this explains Hamilton’s resignation in interviews. He is trying to lead a stubborn horse to water but it’s not listening.
Hamilton’s frustration gets worn out during the race and what we see in his post race interview is the resignation that’s left. Things are so far from where he thinks they should be he doesn’t see any hope. He simply does not have time to get them where they should be. He is at the end of his career, not the start.
And the longer this goes on, the team not “getting” what he wants, the resignation is only going to get worse.
Or is it Hamilton?
Is Hamilton the problem? Is he simply not fast enough?
Personally I’d say no. Is he at his peak? Probably not. Does he still have it? I’d say yes. This is not a driver that has lost half a second to Charles.
He is not blaming anyone else. In the interviews he simply states reality. He doesn’t like the car. What he says in interviews is nothing new to what we can hear on his race radio. He is telling the world what he is telling his race engineer.
I think it’s impossible for Ferrari to point the finger at Hamilton if they don’t give him what he is asking for. If someone is dying of thirst and they ask you for water and you don’t give it to them. You can’t blame them for dying of dehydration.
Will Hamilton stay until the end of the season?
That will depend on the contract and if Hamilton is prepared to “go through the motions”.
On the evidence we have, this is 100% a Ferrari problem. They must listen to Hamilton. Find out what he wants and give it to him. And if that means a different engineer then so be it.
If it get’s to the point where Hamilton gives up speaking to his engineer during the race and just does what the engineer asks then all is lost. At the moment it’s savable but it won’t always be like this.
I don’t think Hamilton will quit. Unless Ferrari start to get ridiculous and start trying to enforce their way of doing things on Hamilton.
Ferrari have a history of having blatantly obvious problems (pit strategy) and taking literally years to address them.
As things stand at the moment, the race engineer is an obvious problem (in that he is not meshing with Hamilton). Vasseur needs to get his arms around this or things could get really ridiculous.
