“I told them the issues”: Lewis Hamilton calls out Mercedes for not ‘owning up’ to their mistakes

Mercedes, according to Lewis Hamilton, "didn't listen" to his concerns about the team's new W14 car. Mercedes began the 2023 season with the fourth-fastest car, chasing Red Bull, Ferrari, and Aston Martin. Red Bull won the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix with a dominant 1-2 finish, while Hamilton and George Russell finished fifth and seventh, respectively.

The team's hopes for a better season have been dashed by a slow start. Mercedes had major performance issues in 2022, with their W13 struggling particularly with 'porpoising'. Moreover, their off-season tweaks didn't really appear to have significantly improved the car's competitiveness in Bahrain. While porpoising is no longer an issue, the W14 still lacks downforce and mechanical grip.

After a difficult weekend in the Middle East, Lewis Hamilton appears to be more critical of Mercedes' situation. He now claims that the team ignored his concerns, calling for "accountability" and a team effort to solve their problems.

"Last year, I told them the issues that are with the car, like, I’ve driven so many cars in my life, so I know what a car needs, I know what a car doesn’t need," Lewis Hamilton said.

He continued,

“And I think it’s really about accountability, it’s about owning up and saying ‘yeah, you know what, we didn’t listen to you, it’s not where it needs to be and we’ve got to work.'"

For the first time in his F1 career, Hamilton finished the season without a win, finishing sixth in the Drivers' Championship. He is still chasing a record eighth world title, which would pass Michael Schumacher as the most successful driver in history.

“We’re still multi-world champions, you know, it’s just they haven’t got it right this time. They didn’t get it right last year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get it right moving forward,” Lewis Hamilton stated.

A title challenge appears to be a long shot this year, with Red Bull once again looking like the frontrunners following Max Verstappen's victory in the Persian Gulf.

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Lewis Hamilton meets the lie detector

Lewis Hamilton might have been caught lying about winning an arm wrestling match against George Russell. Since the start of the 2022 season, Hamilton and George Russell have been teammates at Mercedes. Being on the same team means they spend a lot of time together, so it's safe to say they know each other very well.

Sky Sports recently posted a video on their YouTube channel in which Hamilton completed a lie detector test while the host asked him a series of intriguing questions.

One of the questions the host asked was whether Hamilton thought he could defeat George Russell in an arm wrestle fight. Hamilton confidently stated that he could, but the lie detector concurred.

Hamilton, it turns out, does not believe he can beat Russell in an arm wrestling contest. As the lie detector proved that Hamilton was lying, the 38-year-old burst out laughing, and the host asked him why. This was when Hamilton agreed that Russell has a good body, which is why he believes he can't beat the former Williams driver in the contest.