Hamilton demands more from his team
feedback on a corner, you’re taking your mind off driving a perfect line.”
Mercedes has won the constructors’ and drivers’ double for the past four years, but cracks in the armor are appearing.
While Hamilton’s criticism is not “aimed at one person” in particular, he wants a response at the Chinese GP next week.
Hamilton’s strive for perfection also works against him at times, for he lets frustrations linger.
“If you look at the last race [in Australia], we should have won that and through struggling to understand how we operate, communicate, we did lose the race,” Hamilton said. “There were things we could have done to make sure we came out ahead.”
After that setback, there was a clear breakdown in understanding between him and his race engineers in Bahrain.
“I don’t understand what I’ve got to do,” Hamilton said on lap 43 when told to target a lap time of “low 34s,” or 1 minute, 34 seconds.
“I am doing 34.3, is that enough?” a bewildered Hamilton replied, later adding, “Feels like you guys are not giving me much of a picture.”
With 62 wins and a record 73 pole positions, Hamilton is in a position to be so demanding.
Ferrari’s strategy of only a one-stop race caught Mercedes, which anticipated Vettel coming in for a second tire change. He didn’t and held on to beat Valtteri Bottas — Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate — by 0.7 seconds in a thrilling contest Sunday.
“I would say 90 percent probability was on us winning, and we lost,” Mercedes head of motorsport Toto Wolff said.
Hamilton has not won any of the past five races. It is his longest drought since 2016, when he lost his F1 title to teammate Nico Rosberg.