"Grumpy" Lewis Hamilton raises alarms before the 2021 season 

In a recent feature with Sky Sports, Martin Brundle spoke about his interactions with Sir Lewis Hamilton. According to Brundle, the seven-time world champion was "grumpy" and it could have something to do with his Mercedes contract talks.

Speaking during a SkyF1 testing preview, Brundle said:

"We did a couple of features with him that we will play out through the year on Sky F1. He was very generous but a bit grumpy actually, I thought generally. It’s interesting that his right-hand man, Marc Hynes, is no longer working with him."

“I sensed he possibly wasn’t super-happy with the way the negotiations have worked out at Mercedes.”

Lewis Hamilton's apprehensions before the start of the season

F1 is back this Friday 😍 and @karunchandhok has 4⃣ big questions for pre-season testingWhy are Red Bull being "super secretive"? 🧐@MBrundleF1, @RachelBrookesTV and @tedkravitz discuss the key talking points in our #SkyF1 preview#F1

— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) March 8, 2021

Brundle further added that Lewis Hamilton expressed reservations about the upcoming season.

“Once we got over that, I did say to him ‘you’re going to burst through 100 poles this year at some point, most likely’ and Hamilton said:

"Why? McLaren was a quarter of a second behind us in Abu Dhabi, now they’ve got our engine; what about Red Bull, maybe the high rake works; and don’t count out Ferrari, and the Aston Martin will be strong’."

According to Brundle, he was challenged by Hamilton and he replied:

"Well, you have got 98 of them, mostly in the hybrid era, you scored 10 last year – there’s half a chance you’ll get two more this year."

“But when we got over that little hurdle – because Lewis Hamilton does love to poke you a little bit before you sit down to do stuff like that – I had an hour with him talking about that amazing race in Istanbul last year when he took his seventh World title and he was very generous on inside his head, inside his life of a Grand Prix weekend and how qualifying unfolds.”

Trouble in Lewis Hamilton-Mercedes paradise?

My squad roll deep at almost 2000 people to craft this machine Into the beast it is. Super proud of everyone especially through this challenging time in life. #W12 pic.twitter.com/s7OLLC3ZnF

— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) March 3, 2021

It was strange to see a one-year extension signed by Lewis Hamilton earlier this year. After a prolonged period of contract negotiations, Mercedes and Hamilton, it seems, are still not on the same page.

After almost a decade of domination, neither the team nor the driver had the confidence to sign a multi-year deal. With Hamilton now sounding slightly grumpy just before the start of the season and questioning Mercedes' prospects for the year, there might just be a wrinkle starting to develop in the relationship between Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes. Could this be the beginning of the end of Hamilton and Mercedes' domination?