Lewis Hamilton gets 'zero credit' for his work according to Will Buxton

Will Buxton recently praised Lewis Hamilton for working extremely hard on last year's Mercedes W13 car. The Silver Arrows struggled quite a lot in the 2022 F1 season as they were unable to unleash their car's full potential and suffered several aerodynamic issues. Hence, massive work was cut out for the seven-time world champion as he tried everything to extract more performance out of the car.

During day one of the 2023 F1 pre-season testing, Buxton commented on how Lewis Hamilton should be getting more credit for what he did last year, even when he was not winning races. He said:

“I think last year also, gave evidence to the lie that has been propagated for so long, that Lewis is only a world champion because of the cars he’s had at his disposal and have given Lewis absolutely zero credit for the work that he’s done in helping to create not just the team that he races at but the cars that he races.”

He further added:

“You look at the bulk of the development work that was given to Lewis in the early stages of last year, and how he was given a car that wasn’t at its optimum and it was Lewis that took the brunt of that. It was Lewis that took the lead in determining the direction the team needed to take to iron out those evident difficulties in that car. That was all him, he took that, and he turned it around for them.”

Buxton also mentioned how George Russell was mainly focused on bringing in good results for the team, Lewis Hamilton was mainly working behind the scenes, trying to figure out the car and how to make it as quick as possible. The F1 presenter said:

“Whilst George was pumping in the 5th place results over and over again, Lewis was grinding out that hard graft to really figure out why that car wasn’t working.”

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Mercedes does not have to prove anything to Lewis Hamilton to stay

Lewis Hamilton has a long and rich history with Mercedes. Both have won seven world titles together and dominated F1. Hence, the Briton stated that the team does not have to prove anything to him or urge him to stay. Additionally, he appreciated the team members and engineers who are constantly working hard to make a successful car for the drivers. Hamilton said:

“No, I don’t feel like I need them to prove to me. I think we’ve proven time and time again over the years that we have strength in depth. We still have all these incredibly talented individuals within the team. You don’t lose that ability."

Of course, the 2022 F1 season saw a massive decline in the British team's performance. Although the seven-time world champion was extremely frustrated by the car's lack of performance, he will continue to stick with the team.