Lewis Hamilton visits Mercedes factory after digging out team’s mechanics

Lewis Hamilton has followed up on his promise to visit the Mercedes designers at the Brackley factory, making the trip to provide his input regarding the desired changes after a demoralising outing at the Japanese Grand Prix.

The seven-time world champion promised to check in on the progress at Brackley after the trip to Suzuka, stating: “I know what the problem is; it’s just getting the guys to make the changes. I try to argue my point but it is not my job to design the car. I am hopeful they do the job but it is going to take real changes real quick.”

Hamilton was extremely frustrated in Japan after dragging the maximum performance out of the W14 but still finishing 50 seconds down on race winner Max Verstappen. The 38-year-old could only muster a P5 finish, while team-mate George Russell came home in P7.

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On an individual basis, Hamilton is primed to convert third place in the Drivers’ Championship and is even putting pressure on Sergio Perez in second, but Mercedes could lose out on second place in the Constructor Championship to Ferrari if they continue to struggle.

It is easy to see why the legendary Brit is frustrated with the state of development at Mercedes in 2023. Hamilton was very vocal in his opposition to the team’s design philosophy heading into the year, with the ‘zeropod’ concept eventually scrapped prior to Monaco.

When you compare the progress that McLaren have made, coming from the back of the grid to become the second-fastest team at Suzuka, with that of Mercedes, the legendary constructor needs a major change of fortunes to bring the fight to Red Bull in 2024.

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Thankfully for Hamilton, head of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin has offered some words of encouragement. He stated: “We have set ourselves very ambitious targets.

“We are changing the car quite considerably for next year. Whether or not we can solve all the issues that we’ve got on the handling, that will depend on a number of projects delivering.

“Those projects are underway. They are not complete. But we have got some good directions to try to improve that. The car will be different. We have made a lot of changes to it, but it is very early in the development of a new car to say we’ve got it sorted.”

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