"He very much let George be the man" - Presenter's interesting observation on dynamics between Mercedes drivers

Tom Clarkson believes Lewis Hamilton might be playing mind games with his teammate George Russell. The British press conference presenter believes that the seven-time world champion might be letting his junior teammate play the role of the leader, only to beat him on the track later.

Speaking on the F1 nation podcast, Clarkson explained the dynamic between the Mercedes drives in Australia, saying:

“In the press conference [in Australia], after qualifying, they’d qualified second and third in Melbourne. Max, of course, on pole. And every time a question was posed to both of the Mercedes drivers, Lewis was quite happy for George to answer the question. He almost became the spokesperson for the team in that press conference. And I was interested as to why Lewis was happy to just sit back and let that happen.

"I don’t know whether he’s sort of keeping his powder dry. Is he trying to sort of give him a sort of false hope of being the dominant person, and then he’s going to really hit him hard where it matters most on the stopwatch later on? I don’t know what his thought process was. But it was interesting anyway, to observe that he very much let George be the man.”

While Russell retired from the Australian GP, Hamilton finished second. With the former leading the latter in the race for a majority of the time, there was a heated radio conversation between Russell and Mercedes.

The Briton was complaining about being attacked in the Australian GP. Clarkson’s observation comes as the seven-time world champion is in a mode to rejuvenate his winning mojo. But being beaten by Russell in 2022 has not helped his confidence.

While the 37-year-old has nothing to prove to his younger teammate, it’s a rare moment in his racing career when he has been beaten by his teammates.

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Mercedes boss clarifies rumors about James Allison’s return to the team

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff

Toto Wolff has denied the possibility of James Allison’s full-time return to Mercedes to improve their aerodynamics package. The Austrian mentioned that the former technical director works with their partner INEOS Britannia Americas Cup team.

The global chemical company owns one-third of the Mercedes F1 team and Allison moved there after being unable to devote his full time to the F1 project. After a dismal performance of the W13 in 2022 and an underperforming W14 in 2023, there were rumors that the British engineer had been asked to return.

Asked by Motorsport Network what role the former British technical director has with the F1 team, Wolff said:

“He is not involved. He plays an active role when long-term team strategies are discussed. But nowadays, he devotes his time to other activities such as the America’s Cup project and other programmes aimed at innovation. James is still very important to our organisation. But in terms of the difficulties we have, I don’t think it’s a question of one person, as much as finding more of the right people in the roles we need.”

Wolff addressed rumours relating to Allison, saying that the Briton was focused on the American boat racing project. The Mercedes team boss feels their problems with the car and performance cannot be rectified by one person. He thinks that it will take a larger effort, especially recruiting numerous people to help them return to their winning ways.

The Brackley outfit’s biggest loss was losing their aerodynamics chief Eric Blandin to Aston Martin F1 team. Their future plans involve recruiting more aerodynamic personnel to improvise their car concept in the aerodynamic regulation era in the sport.