'A hypocrite or a competitor': What does Lewis Hamilton's recent comments tell about him?

Lewis Hamilton stirred up quite a storm with his comments in Austria and also invited what appeared to be a scathing rebuke from Max Verstappen as well.

Coming into the 2023 F1 Austrian GP, there have been reports that the Austrian team has already begun work on the next year's car. Christian Horner himself admitted the same in Canada, and that also led to Hamilton's plea to Mercedes to switch the focus to 2024 as early as possible.

All of this was fine and understandable, but coming into Austria, Lewis Hamilton kicked up a storm when he claimed that it was almost unfair that Red Bull could start the work on the next year's car this early.

The Mercedes driver didn't stop at that as he called on the FIA to intervene in the matter and stop teams from starting work on next year's challengers this early in the season.

Talking to Sky Sports, Lewis Hamilton claimed:

"I think the FIA should probably put a time when everyone is allowed to start developing on next year's car. Say August 1, that's where everybody can start so that no one can get an advantage on the next year, cause that sucks. It would make more sense."

The Mercedes driver has since then received a lot of backlash from the fans and even Max Verstappen as well.

While Verstappen's curt "life isn't fair" retort did make the headlines, even the fans have called out the 'hypocrisy' of the driver. While Hamilton has his army standing by him as always, the opposition to his claims has certainly evoked due consideration to his claims.

In this piece, let's try to cover Hamilton's comments from all angles to see what description fits.

We will first take a look at the effectiveness of his suggestion, then the two character traits that are being hotly contested at the moment. Is Lewis Hamilton a hypocrite in his view, or is this just the competitor looking to game the system and get an edge over the competition?

Effectiveness of Lewis Hamilton's suggestion

The suggestion makes sense in the way Lewis Hamilton projected it because it brought forth the aspect that works for a dominant team. However, there are other benefits that are reaped by teams that have messed up on their current car concepts as well.

For instance, if Ferrari, Aston Martin, Alpine, or any other team ended up approaching the regulations in the wrong manner, these teams know that they can not make up the gap to the front within a season.

These teams could then switch the focus entirely to the next season and try to make significant gains in that manner. Something similar was implemented by Haas in 2022 when the team gave up on the 2021 F1 season to focus singularly on the new regulations. There were benefits in play as well as Haas jumped up the final championship standings as well.

If we look at Hamilton's suggestion in an isolated environment where Red Bull seems to be benefitting right now, there's merit to it. However, if you look at it from a 360-degree perspective, you can see that something like this has not been thought out.

Lewis Hamilton: The Hypocrite?

There was a sense of hypocrisy in what Lewis Hamilton stated because, lest we forget, the Mercedes driver enjoyed almost a decade of dominance because of this very clause.

During the turbo hybrid era that began in 2014, Hamilton had the best car on the grid, and more often than not, the team switched focus to next season's machine.

There's nothing wrong with it either, as this was just a judicious use of resources, and Mercedes could afford to do it because of the advantage it enjoyed over the rest of the grid.

The question that comes in here is if Hamilton did not complain about it then and reaped the rewards of the same regulation, does his argument even have the legs to stand on?

More importantly, if roles were reversed and Lewis Hamilton was in Max Verstappen's shoes, would he be advocating such a change? The answer to that question is no, Hamilton would not be doing that.

This is arguably where the Mercedes driver has faced a lot of criticism from the fans. You cannot reap the rewards of one particular regulation for almost a decade and then speak out against it when it does not work in your favor.

Lewis Hamilton: The Competitor

At this moment, let's try and keep the hypocrisy to one side and understand where Lewis comes from.

Just like any other driver in F1, especially the elite ones, Hamilton strives to gain any edge possible against the competition. His campaigning for a regulation change that directly affects Red Bull is a ploy to gain an advantage against the competition.

At the end of the day, these drivers are trying to gain whatever tenth or two they gain over the competition, and while to the outsider it might sound hypocritical, on some level, it needs to be applauded as well. When you talk about Lewis Hamilton, you talk about a driver that has achieved whatever there is to achieve in F1.

He's matched Michael Schumacher's tally of most world titles, he's surpassed the German legend in terms of most wins, podiums, and almost every other record.

Yet, at 38 years of age, he's as hungry as ever. He still wants to fight the best drivers on the grid and achieve the best results. His call to the FIA is just a competitor trying to gain the system, and at 38 years of age, this should be applauded.

At the end of it all, you have Lewis Hamilton, the most successful driver in the history of the sport, still hungry enough that he would try to gain a tenth or two against his competition.

Do his comments make him a hypocrite? Yes, they do. But then, this is F1. As Max Verstappen himself said, "Life isn't fair, So is F1".