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Lewis Hamilton's slow start could be because he's already mentally looking at his stint in Ferrari. That's the view of former F1 driver David Coulthard, as he tried to reason why the Mercedes driver has struggled this much in 2024. The start of the season has not been the best one for Lewis.
In Bahrain, he was comprehensively out-qualified by teammate George Russell and finished the race behind him. In Jeddah as well, Lewis Hamilton looked uncomfortable in the car and was lacking a step or two when it came to performance compared to his teammate.
Talking about Lewis Hamilton's run in 2024, David Coulthard tried to explore what could be the reason behind the Mercedes driver's struggles in the car, and he felt it could be because of his impending move at the end of the season. Lewis is moving to Ferrari in 2025, and that could be playing on his mind. Talking to Channel 4, Coulthard said:
“He’s just not been settled with this car. And you can tell, you know, George is just honing the lap time right now and you can feel that Lewis is on the backfoot. What we do know though, if he does find a window of performance, then you know he will deliver. But right now, it’s looking like his decision to head off to Ferrari, mentally, he is already there.”
Lewis Hamilton's boss is optimistic about bouncing back in Australia
Lewis Hamilton's boss, Toto Wolff, was optimistic about bouncing back in Australia. The Mercedes boss admitted that the team had been struggling with the fundamental issues for the last couple of years and was hoping that things get better at the next race in Melbourne. Talking to the media, including Sportskeeda, he said:
“It’s been two and a half years that we are chasing this fundamental change. It’s been two years that there is something we need to spot, and that’s the thing to unlock. We have just got to work. It’s not through lack of trying. We’ve pushed so hard and we’re going to give it a massive, massive go now in the next week, with more data to understand."
He added:
“We are going to come back to Melbourne strong. We are on a mission on this one. And I am 100 per cent sure that we are going to unlock that performance gap.”
Lewis Hamilton has not had the best of starts to the year and would be hoping that the next race in Australia turns out to be better.
